A Sip and a View, Without the Grit

IN New York, the best places to sit outdoors, sip a glass of chilled pinot grigio and gaze at a stunning or provocative sight are not necessarily sidewalk cafes. The most seductive places are recessed from the street, far away from car exhaust and the rush of hot, sweaty bodies.

A few of these oases of serenity happen to be sidewalk cafes in secluded spots, but others are tucked away in skyscrapers or in public buildings like museums. The city has dozens of contenders, but the seven that follow fulfill the criteria for alfresco sipping with charm. They are open to the public, and they offer places to sit and drink and views that mesmerize, while being shaded from the sun. There are no demands that expensive three-course meals be purchased, and best, no requirements for coats and ties.

Bowery Bar

In downtown Manhattan, there is a garden surrounded by a bright yellow fence where flowers don't bloom in profusion, but pert young women do. It is the Bowery Bar, which is to the young downtown beau monde (actor, waiter, model sorts) what Nell's was in the 1980's and Max's Kansas City was in the 70's. It is where the hopeful might glimpse Calvin and Kelly Klein, Kate Moss and Johnny Depp. The Bowery Bar is an archeological site-to-be, a place to study celebrities in action or people yearning for a frisson of celebrity.

Make a reservation for the garden, order a drink and watch. (The yellow fence is a shield against the street.) Or listen. Even if there are no celebrities, count on overhearing a conversation about, say, how it feels to have a tongue pierced. (Could it be good?) Metropolitan Museum of Art

For those who prefer nature over artifice, art over fashion, there is the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Roof Garden at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Since 1987, the sculpture garden has been open seasonally; this year it is open through Oct. 27.

What the garden lacks -- shade trees (there is only a vine-covered pergola) and a unity of design (half the floor is concrete, the other half wood) -- is offset by spectacular views of Central Park. Dragonflies skim over the treetops.

The keen eye picks out in-line skaters leaping and whirling on the asphalt five stories below. When Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux began to design the park in the 1800's, they climbed onto their horses after work and rode through the more than 700 acres at dusk, to figure out how to keep horses from colliding with people who, in turn, needed protection from carriages. Their answer, the brilliantly designed transverses of the park, worked as well then as now.

The water of the reservoir sparkles, and a glimpse of the Dakota gives rise to a thought of John Lennon. But when views of humans, trees and skyscrapers begin to pale, there are the six sculptures, including Rodin's melancholy "Three Shades." To get to the garden, one must go through the museum, which has a suggested fee of $8. But once in the garden, one can linger without having to buy even a soda ($2). Still, some may prefer to daydream with a martini ($5.50) in one hand, and a mozzarella and tomato sandwich ($4.50) in the other.

Museum of Modern Art

For the esthete who drinks, there is also Sette Moma, the second-floor restaurant overlooking the sculpture garden at the Museum of Modern Art. Reservations are suggested, but free passes to Sette Moma are available at the information desk.

The terrace has 26 tables. Some have molded-wood chairs in Arne Jacobsen's 1951 design, while others have metal wire chairs in Harry Bertoia's 1952 design. Hope for a Jacobsen chair; the Bertoias leave waffle marks in the flesh.

The view, however, is splendid. Philip Johnson, the architect, chose the pieces for the garden, and "The River," Maillol's sculpture of a woman, reclines under the weeping beech, whose leaves graze the reflecting pool. The sweet smell of linden trees wafts through the garden.

The terrace view also tells some New Yorkers that perhaps they are not as smart or soigne as they think. Out-of-town families, unaware of New Yorkers' perverse desire to wear heat-enhancing black all summer, dart about, taking pictures and looking cool and comfortable in their white Bermuda shorts.

On the terrace, the service, along with the food and drink (a glass of wine starts at $5) is quintessentially Italian. Warm. Gracious. When the waiter recommended the risotto ($9), he was right. It was the better of two dishes ordered.

Bar Pitti

The Italian spirit is alive at Bar Pitti, 268 Avenue of the Americas (Bleecker Street), one of the few sidewalk cafes in Manhattan that is set so far back from the street (leaving 15 feet of sidewalk clear) that cars become distant and fumes faint. The bar, where a glass of wine costs $4.50, attracts a downtown crowd that likes to stay up late and pretend it is in a Roman piazza sheltered by a deep awning, enveloped by sweet service, where no one hurries.

In front of the bar are huge trees, with benches directly beneath, yet another echo of Rome.

Bryant Park Cafe

For those who like to drink and people-watch in a park, lost among trees without a car in sight, there is the Bryant Park Cafe. Directly behind the New York Public Library, the cafe, with its bamboo and rattan chairs, encourages both leisurely drinking (wine starts at $5.50 a glass) and reading.