Hidden behind what is a coffee bar during the day, this was midtown’s first truly successful speakeasy (it’s now been joined by Nothing Really Matters). It feels like a secret and looks like a movie-set ideal of a cool, exclusive Manhattan bar—brick walls, dim Edison-style bulbs hanging over the bar, model-handsome patrons. It’s called Patent Pending because it’s in the basement of the building where Nikola Tesla did his radio-wave experiments; following that theme, all of the balanced, tasty, but slightly wacky cocktails have “electric” names—like the “Light Me Up,” a play on an Old Fashioned using Szechuan peppercorn powder to give patrons’ lips a tingle.