Distinguished!

In 2000, this nautically themed Port Authority dive ignited a political firestorm when cops took security guard Patrick Dorismond for a drug dealer, mistakenly shooting and killing him. Mayor Giuliani made matters worse, releasing Dorismond’s sealed records and saying he was no altar boy—when, in fact, he once had been—at Rudy’s very own Catholic alma mater. Still one of Hell's Kitchen's great dive bars at 37th and 8th Avenue.
Etymology
The term “dive” dates from London in the 19th century, when young men wanted a livelier place in which to spend their afternoons than the gentlemen’s clubs frequented by their fathers. They formed informal clubs, where they gathered to smoke and drink coffee.[citation needed]
The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary indicates that, in the United States in the 1880s, the term referred to an illegal drinking den or other place of ill repute, especially one located in a basement.
The term may also refer to an opium den.