Inside Saint Tuesday, a Subterranean Bar Below Tribeca's Walker Hotel

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Tucked away two floors below the hip Walker Hotel Tribeca, which opened last year, is a new cocktail bar called Saint Tuesday. The discreet entrance at 24 Cortlandt Alley, on the side of the hotel, belies the warm, cozy bar within. Walk up a short flight of stairs in the alley and enter the space, which is outfitted with black leather banquettes, a marble bar and round tables, and is illuminated by candlelight, and you’ll feel transported to the New York of yesteryear.

The cocktail program is headed up by Christopher Covey, an alum of the Milk & Honey family of bars, and it shows in both the artistry of the menu and the speakeasy-esque vibe of the space. “When people come in and see it, they often ask if we found a secret bar when exploring the hotel,” Covey told Untapped New York, explaining that it was designed by Johnny McCormick, who’s responsible for some of Brooklyn’s best vintage-style restaurants and bars, including Maison Premiere, Five Leaves, and his own spot St. Mazie.

Saint Tuesday bar — Photo by Alexa Bendek

“The space has the feeling of a Parisian jazz cave, and yet is quintessentially New York, with motifs of brass and copper throughout, the gold starburst design of the stage mirroring the way the candle light dances on the table,” Covey explained. “While many bars work to celebrate the jazz age, Saint Tuesday leans a little earlier in time to the Titanic era, a bit more working class and rustic, with an ice box behind the bar from the late 1800s and wood floors pulled from a barn upstate.”

Signature cocktails include the Business (a gimlet variation with gin, fresh lime, and honey served up) created by the late legendary bartender and Milk & Honey founder Sasha Petraske, Corpse Reviver #1 (applejack, cognac, sweet vermouth, and angostura bitters served up) created in 1930 by Harry Craddock at the Savoy in London, and the Suitcase (rye, cynar, honey, salt and chocolate bitters served on the rocks), which Covey created at Little Branch, one of the bars in the Milk & Honey family.

“I designed the menu to be classic, simple and elegant, like our cocktails,” Covey said, explaining that it was important to him to pay homage to the history of the cocktails by giving proper credit to the creator of each drink on the menu. “The brief cocktail list has a range of spirits and styles of drinks in an attempt to give our guests several options, but also we always recommend letting us know a couple flavor preferences and letting us go off-menu.”

Saint Tuesday is open from Thursday to Sunday from 8 p.m. until 2 a.m. and has live music every night from 10:30 p.m. until 1 a.m. Covey concludes, “When guests are at the bar, we want to provide a space where they feel unstuck from time and space, where they can spend 20 minutes or three hours and still feel that with the setting and cocktail, they are able to be transported, even if only for a brief while.”