New York City Neighborhood Bars

Attitude-free and stocked to the top with affordable wines, the 8th St. Winecellar is one of the coolest wine bars in NYC. The often t-shirt-clad bartenders who hang out and innocuously chat with patrons about just about everything and anything set the casual ambiance perfectly, making this neighborhood place seem a bit more crunchy-Napa, CA than posh-Manhattan. The carefully crafted list of wines focuses on tiny produces from France, Spain and Italy, and the prices are affordable enough that just about any oenophile can sate their craving. Non-wine drinkers can order pretty much anything from the full bar, and the mellow bartenders will happily comply.

Rarely busy and always friendly, Antarctica is perhaps the best spot for billiards in Manhattan. There always seems to be only a handful of people in this unassuming little neighborhood bar, which means that the pool tables are often open. Though the drinks are good and fairly cheap and the staff is mellow, there's nothing particularly amazing about this place other than the noticeable breathing room (which, we admit, is a rarity in this city). It might be relatively unknown status of this place that makes it so great; if that is the case, then we sincerely apologize to all the Antarctica-addicted pool players we've angered by airing your secret.

Classic, warm and easygoing, The Auction House is the kind of Upper East Side neighborhood bar that we love because it's so completely un-Upper East Side. The mellow, groomed 20-something patrons are generally chatting away over cocktails in the red velvet atmosphere on one of the big cushy antique chairs or at one of the intimate tables for two. During the colder months, this easygoing neighborhood joint gets the big fireplace going, making it the ultimate cozy and romantic hideaway. As a bonus for all the animal lovers and PETA members out there, the bar enforces a strict No-Fur policy.

Too clean to be called a dive, to gritty and casual to be called a lounge; Bar East is your classic neighborhood bar. Tucked into a decently sized space on an unassuming stretch of First Avenue in the Upper East Side, this is the kind of place where the bartenders are friendly and the atmosphere welcoming to just about anyone. The long oak bar is a total classic studded with brass lion heads, and there are pool tables and a dartboard for people to entertain themselves with. During the early evening, the space is nearly empty; later on, DJs pick up the tempo with an eclectic mix of music that brings in a crowd of vivacious young professionals.

Though many are still mourning Barramundi's loss of it's long-time and forever packed Ludlow Street digs, everyone is encouraged to drown their sorrows with cold brews and delicious cocktails in the sparkling new location on Clinton Street. Though the garden was lost in the move, the tree-trunk tables and mounted deer's head survived—so the strangely country Aussie vibe is still intact. The crowd is mostly early-30s neighborhood folks who like to sip their drinks, not slam them; there are six taps and eleven bottled brews, and the bartender creates a new house-infused vodka every week.

If rock and roll is your addiction, than the C Bar has got your next fix. With neon beer signs, a rickety pool table with a hanging chalk board where drunken folks scrawl their names to get in on the next game and a great sign taped to the window that says "Please Respect Our Neighbors and Shut the F**k Up!," this bar is about as rocked out as they come. It's the cool kind of neighborhood rock dive where mellower types grab cold brews after work and stick around for a few hours getting sauced 'til long past dinner, progressively getting louder as the night goes on. The cocktails are commonly stiff, so the $3 well drinks during happy hour are sure to nurse the wounds of even the most stressful Monday without breaking the bank.

No matter what time you show up to Corner Bistro, plan on queuing up with everyone else while waiting not for the $2 pints of beer, not for the big cushy booths, not for the fun atmosphere, but for the Bistro Burger. It should be a rule that, at some point in life, anyone who wants to say they're a New Yorker must pair beer with a burger from this amazing neighborhood joint. The Bistro Burger is an eight-ounce slab of juicy grilled beef dressed out with melty cheese, bacon and onions—not only is it a heart attack waiting to happen, it's the messiest, tastiest six bucks that most people will ever spend. Take that Burger King.

Deacon Brodie's is an amazing neighborhood bar for two reasons: 1) It has stood its ground on the ever-touristy Restaurant Row in Hell's Kitchen, and 2) it has remained fabulously non-touristy. How this place has maintained that cool, loveable neighborhood bar feel amidst the freakishly popular restaurant surroundings is a mystery and a minor miracle. Stroll on in here after work and grab a cold one from head barkeep Liam, chill out on a barstool or cushy couch and listen to the country-driven jukebox belt out toe tappin' tunes.

If you grabbed Motor City from the Lower East Side and planted it on the Upper West Side, swapped out the garage décor for dimmed chandeliers and black-and-white flyers for old Misfits and Black Flag shows, you would get the Ding Dong Lounge. The similarity to Motor City isn't much of a surprise since M.C.'s former owner is now the owner of this place. Funky eclectic décor suits this neighborhood bar perfectly, as does the crowd of grad students and neighborhood folks who were punk-rock to the core in their early days and yet are still cool enough to be called classy punk-rock. DJs spin punk and various forms of rock most evenings.

The Ginger Man is to beer lovers what Willy Wonka's factory is to candy lovers. With 66 taps and over 150 bottles, this temple of suds is proof that there's a god somewhere who loves us all very, very much. This place doesn't look anything like a typical beer supplying pub, either; the bartenders look like they should be models (they probably are models, for all we know—after all, this is New York), the setting is stylish with fine fabrics, dark woods and elegant accent lights, and the crowd can include everyone from suit-and-tie singles to Wall Street execs to Broadway babies fresh off the stage.

Trimmed with gigantic Christmas lights, the interior of HiFi has a cool, multi-colored style accented by classic rock album covers and televisions broadcasting VH-1 Classics. The scene is deeply rock oriented, from Nugent-loving old-school guys to glam-rock chicks, all of whom pack in and rock out with 2-4-1 well drinks from 4pm-8pm, games of pool and killer music. The one-of-a-kind El DJ mp3 jukebox is the highlight here—while you're swilling your cocktail, cruise through over 3,000 albums (more than 31,000 songs) of five decades of rock and rock-related music. Is it the best jukebox on the planet? Very likely.

Famous for blatantly defying the Prohibition, serving as the one-time watering hole of famous folks like Abe Lincoln and Woody Guthrie, and for a century-old ban on serving women (which was razed by lawsuit in 1970), McSorley's Old Ale House, the oldest Irish tavern in New York, is a legend. Nowadays, this rickety old saloon brings out big crowds of frat boys and pretty girls with picture-cluttered walls and mugs of house-brand ale that come in pairs—one light and one dark. Oddly, one of the other famous things about McSorley's is the signature cheese and onion plate, which is exactly what it sounds like: cheddar cheese and a giant slab of raw onion. Why do folks love eating cheese and raw onions in the bar? We don't know. Sawdust is strewn on the floors and beer is often spilled here, so ladies, you'll want to skip the open-toed shoes.

If Motor City ever closed, it's safe to say that almost all the punkers, rockers and gearheads in NYC would mourn collectively. Motor City is a Lower East Side institution and a killer haven for anyone who digs good rock music, cold beer, hot punk-babe bartenders and cars. The interior is decked out with black and white tiles, red lights, a Ford Mustang mural, hubcaps on the wall and car seat couches. The music rocks, plain and simple, mostly from DJs who are as dedicated to metal, punk, rockabilly and the classics as every true rocker should be. About the size of a two-car garage, this cool hangout is a good refuge every night of the week.

If you're not up on your 1800s gang history, then you're probably wondering what in God's name could bring a bar to be called "Plug Uglies." Well, the bar was named for the notorious Plug Uglies gang associated with New York, albeit mistakenly courtesy of Herbert Asbury's 1927 book Gangs of New York; the Uglies were actually from Baltimore. Regardless of that fact, though, this little hangout maintains a decidedly unpretentious and basically irreverent Irish pub spirit. The irony here, which we find hysterical, is that this named-in-honor-of-a-gang bar is now one of the primary hangouts for members of the NYPD's 13th precinct. So, all you unruly drinkers out there, mind yourselves because we can promise you that these guys don't want to deal with you when they're trying to relax with a beer off duty any more than you want to be on their bad side.

If some of the most amazing gourmet burgers and Australian BBQ isn't enough to lure you into the Sunburnt Cow, then maybe the gorgeous garden patio (open year round) and the fabulous selection of beer, wine and cocktails are. This groovy East Village hangout is filled to the brim regularly with a selection of chic Alphabet City hipsters who either hang out in small groups at the bar chatting with the bartenders or sit out back with groups of friends, socializing the night away while strewn over the rustic benches with cocktails and cigarettes in hand.