Raccoon Lodge - Financial District

More than just a neighborhood standby, the Raccoon Lodge (on Warren Street, 4 blocks from the former World Trade Center site) was a beacon for workers at Ground Zero; the bar re-opened two weeks after 9/11, one of the only operating businesses in the area at the time. A large, high-ceilinged space, lit by pseudo-stained glass lamps and just noisy enough to create a pleasing din, it remains a bastion of maleness (old signs and dead animals dominate the walls; video golf and shooting games create their own play area to the side of the billiards), with nary a cosmo in sight. Scuzzy in all the right ways, this unaffected dive earns its credibility with lowbrow beers, scary bathrooms, hunting lodge-meets-junkyard décor and a not-for-amateurs pool table. A comfortable back nook has a few tables away from the raucous crowd so customers can enjoy the roaring fireplace and stills from The Honeymooners (for which the bar is named, Ralph Cramden spoke fondly of visiting the Raccoon Lodge). The cheap drinks are prepared with sass by long-limbed bartenders in skimpy tank tops who aren't above flirting with Wall Street professionals, Tribeca residents, and Downtown tourists. — Jane Lerner