Overview
History
Twenty million gallons and a happy hour
The tavern shares its name with the Croton Distributing Reservoir, which opened on the Fourth of July, 1842, holding twenty million gallons behind granite walls fifty feet high and twenty-five feet thick1. A promenade ran around the top of the walls, the city climbed up to walk it, and Edgar Allan Poe was among them1. That's a heavy pedigree for a happy-hour spot.
Croton Reservoir Tavern opened in 2003 at 108 West 40th Street, between Sixth Avenue and Broadway, a block from Bryant Park1, 2. When we listed it, we called it an upscale restaurant and tavern that drew the after-work crowd with its happy hour specials and an above-par bar menu.
More than two decades on, it's still a tavern on West 40th, five minutes from the theaters2. Downstairs is a room it calls The Speakeasy, with a DJ on select nights2.
Sources
Researched October 2026.