Finding hidden cocktail gems is a time-tested practice in New York. City dwellers adore the search; they relish in the idiosyncratic entrance procedures and the anti-marketing aspects. If you’re fortunate enough to live in the East Village rental apartments at EVGB, you’ll find yourself right in the center of a venerable speakeasy haven. Here are a few of our favorites:

Angel’s Share | 8 Stuyvesant St., New York, NY 10003

To find Angel’s Share, a small, sophisticated spirits sanctuary on Stuyvesant Street, you need to enter through an unmarked door in the Japanese restaurant Village Yokocho. Walk up the stairs, make a left, and open the door, and you’ll find yourself in a dimly lit bar that looks like it fell out of the Victorian era. Accented by orange and crimson and populated by vested bartenders stirring and shaking the night away, Angel’s Share is one of the premier destinations in the city for meticulously crafted cocktails.

Lovers of Today | 132 1/2 E. 7th St., New York, NY 10009

This is actually a two-for-one selection. Walk into the unmarked door on 7th Street, and you’ll find two secret bars along the same hallway: Cabin Down Below and Lovers of Today. While both are certainly worth exploring, getting into Cabin can prove difficult due to its size (it’s very tiny), so we’re going to focus on Lovers of Today. This luxurious little basement cove used to be a tiki bar but is now a cocktail-centric locale with drinks named after revered rock songs of the past. All the liqueurs are made in-house, which adds a level of vibrancy to each of their creations.

Blind Barber | 339 E. 10th St., New York, NY 10009

The Blind Barber is part barbershop, part cocktail bar. During the day, if you look in, you’ll find a fully functioning, hip barbershop, with cocktails included, but in the evenings, a lounge opens up in the back. There’s often a DJ spinning as the skilled mixologists craft some unique and flavorful concoctions.

Please Don’t Tell | 113 St. Marks Pl., New York, NY 10009

Undoubtedly the most famous speakeasy in the neighborhood, if not the whole city, Please Don’t Tell (PDT), was once named the best bar in the world, and for good reason. The entrance is in a phone booth within the local hot dog spot, Crif Dogs. The cocktails are inventive and exquisitely prepared, and the ambiance is quiet and laid-back. And the best part is that you can order a hot dog or burger from Crif Dogs, and they’ll serve it to you right at the bar.