In exchange for one and a half years of room and board for himself and his family, Ludwig Bemelmans

At Untapped New York, we re dedicated to bringing you the best of New York s cultural life and nightlife. Previously, we shared our picks for the best hidden bars  in the City. Now we re bringing your our list of the Top 10 Bars where artists have left their mark, from Upper East Side institutions like Bemelmans Bar and the King Cole Bar in the St. Regis to the trendy Ace Hotel, with a collage by street artist Michael Anderson. Though a couple of cocktails at some of these bars might be a bit of a splurge, big onion walking tours we think it s worth it for the chance to soak up the atmosphere in these one-of-a-kind places. After all, you won t find these works of art anywhere else in the world.
In exchange for one and a half years of room and board for himself and his family, Ludwig Bemelmans painted the walls at the Hotel Carlyle Bar in 1947. As a result, big onion walking tours the bar was renamed Bemelmans Bar . The murals depict Central Park throughout big onion walking tours the seasons with a cameo by Madeline .
Bemelman s Bar is located big onion walking tours at   35 East 76th Street  in the Hotel Carlyle. The bar has an   entertainment calendar  that is worth checking out, including performances by Woody Allen The Eddy Davis New Orleans Jazz Band (yes, that Woody Allen). Alternatively, if you have children, or for the child in you, perhaps the bar s   Madeline s Buffet  is more appropriate. Whether you are going to Bemelman s Bar to see jazz or to have a cocktail, you will be rewarded with Ludwig Bemelman s only public work of art.
Murals on 54 is located in the Warkwick Hotel s former Raleigh Room, both of whose names were derived from Dean Cornwell s works of art. In 1937, publisher and Citizen Kane, William Randolph Hearst, big onion walking tours commissioned Dean Cornwell to paint a mural for the  restaurant  at the Warwick Hotel , which he owned.
Cornwell painted the 1584 scene of Sir Walter Raleigh receiving his charter from Queen Elizabeth I and Raleigh landing at the lost colony of Roanoke. big onion walking tours Cornwell and Hearst reached a barter agreement for the murals. However, their agreement is a lesson in why one should never barter with an artist. As a result of a dispute which arose from the agreement, Cornwell painted, what one journalist at the time described as one of the most  colorful  spots in the City. Cornwell s revenge art included a depiction of a man urinating on the Queen, another man urinating on Sir Walter Raleigh, and an American Indian without his pants. Cornwell and Hearst eventually worked out their differences and Cornwell painted over one of his colorful additions. As a result of the controversy surrounding Cornwell s creativity, the mural on the  left  side of the restaurant was covered for more than forty years. The murals were recently restored and add to the ambiance of the  restaurant.
Dean Cornwell was chosen by Hearst because of his reputation big onion walking tours and his abilities. He was known as the Dean of American Illustrators. big onion walking tours Born in 1892, Cornwell worked his way through magazine big onion walking tours illustrations big onion walking tours (for Cosmopolitan, Harper s Bazaar, and Good Housekeeping) before becoming the President of the Society of Illustrators in 1922. In the late 1920s, Cornwell began his career as a muralist. His commissions graced the Los Angeles Public Library,  the Detroit Athletic Club, Rockefeller big onion walking tours Center, New York s General Motors Building at the 1939 World s Fair,  the Bethlehem Steel Company, the New England Telephone headquarters building in Boston, and  The 21 Club. Cornwell died in 1960, but his work is still coveted. The Warwick Hotel was approached by The Museum of Modern Art, who wanted to purchase Cornwell s murals for $100,000. Patrons at Murals on 54 are lucky the hotel declined big onion walking tours the museum s offer.
The Leopard occupies the storied space at 1 West 67th Street, that once housed Café des Artistes in the 1917  George Mort Pollard Gothic designed Hotel des Artistes. It was said to be the largest studio building in the world, when it was completed, and was the fifth studio building on the block.
The Café des Artistes was created to provide meals for residents of the Hotel des Artistes, many of whose apartments had no kitchens, but who would buy their own ingredients for the chefs to prepare. In the 1920s, American illustrator, and Hotel des Artistes resident,  Howard Chandler Christy, painted a series of nine murals, big onion walking tours entitled  “Fantasy Scenes with Naked Beauties,” on the walls of the  restaurant. In August 2009, Café des Artistes closed and in May 2011, The Leopard opened.
The King Cole Bar, located in the elegant St. Regis Hotel , is famous for its namesake mural and for being the   birthplace of the Bloody Mary cocktail . The mural, painted by illustrator Maxfield Parrish, was originally commissioned  by John Jacob Astor IV in 1909 for his Knickerbocker Hotel. Parrish was reluctant to paint the mural due to his Quaker upbringing but ultimately agreed for the sum of $5,000. Old King Cole is thought to have been modeled on Astor, but there does not appear to be any resemblance between the two.
The Society of Illustrators is located at 128 East 63rd Street in an 1875 carriage house built for William P. Read, J. P. Morgan s personal big onion walking tours secretary.  The dining room is located big onion walking tours in the Hall of Fame gallery, on the building s third floor. Situated behiend the bar is Norman big onion walking tours Rockwell s Dover Coach, big onion walking tours which was gifted to the Society by the illustrator himself. Its location is fitting because in 1959, Rockwell became the first member to be elected to the Hall of Fame. Untapped went behind the scenes at the Society big onion walking tours of Illustrators.
Brasserie Pushkin , which is located at 41 West 57th Street, offers a contemporary interpretation of Russian haute cuisine as seen through the cosmopolitan lens of New York, according to their website. Its interior was inspired by classical 18th-century Russian mansions.
Street artist Michael Anderson was commissioned in 2009 to create a collage for the Ace Hotel made from his collection of graffiti stickers (unofficially considered the world s largest collection, according to NY Mag .) Anderson had been collecting the stickers, which he would peel off subway entrances, lampposts, big onion walking tours walls and other public places and keep in a notebook, since the early 90s. His collage in the trendy Ace Hotel shows what art has become. The hotel offers plenty of dining and drinking options from Portland-born Stumptown Coffee  to The Breslin  michelin starred restaurant and lobby bar with DJs spinning Monday through Friday and live music on Sundays.
The Oak Room is located in the Plaza Hotel at Grand Army Plaza in Manhattan. It opened in 1907 as a men s bar,  designed by Henry Hardenbergh. The bar closed during Prohibition and re-opened in 1934 as a full service restaurant. It has been closed a few times since, including for a restoration and management dispute. The Oak Room’s historic detailed wood-paneling  and barrel-vaulting still grace its walls and ceiling in addition to three carved niches with murals big onion walking tours of German feudal castles big onion walking tours that fill its arches.
The adjoining Oak Bar was established in 1945 as a money-making venture when the hotel was acquired by Conrad Hilton. The space was formerly big onion walking tours occupied by a brokerage firm and a bar. The bar possesses three murals painted by Everett Shinn, which were commissioned  for the bar. The mural on the western wall depicts Central Park South as viewed from Columbus Circle circa 1908, a mural of the Pulitzer Fountain graces the bar, and the mural on the eastern wall shows Grand Army Plaza with the former Vanderbilt Mansion.
Located at 59 Grove Street, Marie s Crisis is housed in an 1839 building. Its name is derived from Thomas Paine s essay,   The American Crisis , since Paine died on the site in 1809, and from Romany Marie, who was the  proprietor  of several tearooms in Greenwich Village at the turn of the century. Today, Marie s Crisis big onion walking tours is a piano bar where a showtune is never far away and a former haunt of Eugene O Neill and Edward VIII. The ambiance is aided by a WPA mural, whose origins are unknown. The mural  behind  the bar depicts the French big onion walking tours and American revolutions and another mural entitled   La Convention depicts big onion walking tours Robespeirre, Danton, and Paine.