It's about time somebody launched a festival dedicated solely to the consumption of booze, with zero pretense of cultural distractions like movies or music. The first-ever Manhattan Cocktail Classic kicks off this weekend, with events like "The Agave Session: The Magical Elixirs of Mexico," and "Cocktail Kingdom Presents: A Practical Guide to Barware from Around the World." Beyond the seminars, which promise to have many tastings, there's a series called "Stories from Behind the Bar" where you can get up close and personal with bartending talent on their home turf.

It's the weekend eve. Thursday night hotspots, just for thee.

1. 1Oak (Chelsea) - Cool rules the door at this lavish new hot spot.
2. The Eldridge (Lower East Side) - Most popular bookstore on the block is a hit for the kids who don't read and write so good.
3. BEast (Chinatown) - Santos peeps take over the stealth joint beneath Broadway East.

The Food Network is throwing a three-day party, and you're invited. The first ever New York Food & Wine Festival debuts this weekend in the city. Held mostly in the Meatpacking District and DUMBO, this foodie festival will have mouths watering all weekend. Get your tickets here, and check out our selected three-day itinerary to figure out how and when to get in on the action.

Friday
10 p.m.-midnight: Highline Ballroom for Midnight Music & Munchies (hosted by Daily Candy). Top Chefs featured on Daily Candy make late-night treats, hot-spot bartenders make drinks, and Tom Colicchio makes music (really) with Milton.

The mixed drinks renaissance is on.

1. Weather Up (Prospect Heights) - Weather the heavy early crowds for Sasha-style involved cocktails.
2. Huckleberry Bar (Williamsburg) - The 'Burg all growed up, in sleek oak, glass, and iron digs.
3. Clover Club (Brooklyn South) - Ms. Reiner goes to Smith, bringing the classic ’tails of Flatiron and Pegu.

Bringing the “pub”-lic back into the club.

The original pub (short for “public”) leveled society’s strata of intelligentsia, wealthy, witty, and common ... hence its popularity. One thousand years of common drinking history supported conversation from the substantive to the flippant. Oft kept quiet from meddling community outsiders, however, have been the “secondary pubs”: spaces -- containing the local riffraff and rarified -- positioned down the rabbit hole. Brooklyn’s beauty, the Clover Club, offers just such a “back parlor,” a lap of intimacy, velvet, and fire for educated drinking and communication. (See our gallery of the space.) This secondary space draws the daring and self-selected trouble-making crew crying out to communicate salacious stories. Behind the curtains and down the steps, a husky cast-iron fireplace covered in marble stimulates curious conversation.