The Best Nightlife

Best Performance Space: Carnegie Hall. One of the world's great performance spaces, with an array of world-class talent on display almost every night.

Best Free Cultural Event: Shakespeare in the Park. Imagine Shakespeare performed by stars, under the stars, in Central Park. No wonder it has become a New York institution.

Best Children's Theater: Paper Bag Players. For children ages 4 to 9, this group performs in the winter and offers tales told in imaginative and original ways.

Best Jazz Club: The Village Vanguard. The acoustics and sightlines aren't great, but you can't do better for consistent good-quality jazz.

Best Rock Club: Mercury Lounge. This venue is intimate but not obscure. The Merc is the best for hard-edged rock 'n' roll.

Best Comedy Club: Gotham Comedy Club. Comfortable and sophisticated, this is where the best come to hone their acts.

* Best Cocktail: Pegu Club, 77 W. Houston, 2nd floor. Leave it to that supreme mixologist Audrey Saunders to open a club where the cocktails are unbeatable. Everything is top label and all juices and mixers are freshly made.

Best Pub: Ear Inn. An old hanger-on in chic SoHo, this old joint continues to survive amongst the lush lounges that surround it.

Best Dive Bar: Subway Inn. Sure, I know you came to New York to go to a dive bar. Enter the Subway Inn, and it's as if you stepped into a 1940s film noir -- minus the cigarette smoke, of course.

Best Bar with a View: Rise Bar, in the Ritz-Carlton Battery Park Hotel. With views of Lady Liberty, New York Harbor, and incredible sunsets, this bar is worth seeking out even if you're not staying here.

Best Exclusive Bar: Rose Bar, in the Gramercy Park Hotel. This magnificent room with its Schnabel originals, incredible sound system, lush seating, beautiful people, and very expensive cocktails is worth groveling to enter.