The 25 Best Sports Bars in NYC

Football season in New York City is unlike football season anywhere else. In other parts of the country, you see floods of one or two colors and the same three or four jerseys from the grocery store to the gas station, from the bar to the DUI checkpoint.

In New York, everyone is from somewhere else. Every Sunday you see Nordic babes in Vikings tees, transplant politicos sporting Redskins jerseys, and vegan bohemian grad students in Niners and Seahawks gear. There’s nothing like it, and NYC has dozens of havens that cater to the sea of fans that just want to watch their team. After extensive research and several chili-cheese fries-induced purchases of Tums from Duane Reade, we present this tavern guide just in time for your 2012 NFL season: The 25 best sports bars in NYC.

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Neighborhood: Chelsea
Address: 59 Chelsea Pier
Website: chelseabrewingco.com

The fact that Chelsea Brewing Co. is a bar in NYC that offers a view of the water, rather than a view of the side of a high rise or pandhandling hobos, puts it a cut ahead of the rest. Word is you can smoke in the waterfront seating area as well. If you can stomach the trek all the way to 11th Avenue you should enjoy the ambience as this spacious spot. The beers might be more expensive, but remember that, as with any piece of Manhattan real estate, you're paying for more than you realize. And anyway, the game is on—only money you should be thinking about is the bet you made before kickoff.

Neighborhood: West Village
Address: 77 Warren St.
Website: warren77nyc.com

The black and white photos on the wall and curved black leather booths lend an air of class to Warren 77, just the sort of thing you'd expect from a sports bar this far down the island. From the Lower Manhattan prices to Sean Avery’s ownership stake in the place, this is a New York sports bar for New Yorkers with a little extra cash (and an affinity for hockey). We’ve yet to meet such a person, but we assume they exist. Everyone else can front together at 77.

Neighborhood: Fort Greene, Brooklyn
Address: 71 Lafayette Ave.
Website: mullanesbrooklyn.com

Leave it to Fort Greene to have a sports bar that features salads and is widely known for brunch. But we're willing to look past this seeming contradiction, as there's so much to love: Affordable drinks (for the neighborhood), good food, a projector TV, and a good faith attempt to play every game make this a solid spot in a neighborhood more closely associated with the Brooklyn Flea.

Neighborhood: East Village
Address: 56-58 Bleecker St.
Website: bleeckerstreetbarnyc.com

Though Bleecker Street Bar doesn’t offer anything unique, whether in terms of pastimes or sports allegiances, the place has all of the things you’d want in a neighborhood sports bar. Three dart boards, pool tables, Big Buck Hunter, and even a photo booth can distract you when your team is down for the count. No gimmicks here, but this close to SoHo, being an up-the-gut neighborhood spot is, sadly, a gimmick of its own. But one we can get behind, dammit.

Neighborhood: Midtown
Address: 727 7th Ave.
Website: tonicbarnyc.com

If your taste runs divey, you may find Tonic is a bit too posh. The food is solid, drinks are alcohol-poisoning strong, and there's more than enough digital plasma to go around for your viewing pleasure. If leather booths are more your speed than rickety stools, Tonic should be your jam.

Neighborhood: Astoria, Queens
Address: 35-33 36th St.
Website: studiosquarenyc.com

Eliot and Ilana Glazer’s Shit New Yorkers Say was spot-on. If you ever suggest that your crew come watch the game in Queens, the first response is a disgusted “Queens?!” followed by, “Yeah, I know Astoria… the Beer Garden.” In fact, it is the Beer Gardens. While Studio Square is superior as a sports bar to the Bohemian Beer Hall, the Bohemian Beer Hall is the better bar, possessing an aura of authenticity that Studio Square can't compete with. But as we're concerned with sports, and nobody wants to listen to the game on the radio, he who has the most TVs is king. This place has a “super screen,” so if your game is the game that week, and you need it big, there's no better place to watch than Studio Square.

Neighborhood: Greenpoint, Brooklyn
Address: 37 Greenpoint Ave.
Website: redstarny.com

Patrons identify Red Star as the “anti-hipster” bar in Lena Dunham’s Greenpoint. One regular noted that this was a place to see “sports jerseys, business suits, and jeans that aren’t skinny.” We aren’t sure why you'd be in Greenpoint if you value those things, as Hoboken and Astoria provide comparable rents and the desired vibe, but hey, if that's what you're after, this is your spot. Regardless of you socio-cultural affiliations, anyone can appreciate a $2 PBR and some of the best wings in Brooklyn. Wings and the game merely being on can make you feel like your team is winning. Even when they aren't.

Neighborhood: The Bronx
Address: 216 West 238th St.
Website: bronxalehouse.com

The only people we know who watch games in the Bronx live in the Bronx. That said, it's worth the trip for this gem of a sports bar. Not only do they have sixteen local and imported craft brews on tap, they also offer a bit more than your standard bar fare, including fried mac ‘n cheese, po’ boys, and pulled pork/chicken sandwiches. Stress eating is a staple of the sports experience that seldom gets as much shine as stress drinking. Both, however, are equally important.

Neighborhood: Astoria, Queens
Address: 32-04 Broadway
Website: break-ny.com

It might be strange to hear that a pool hall is also a great sports bar, but Break is all that and more. Indulge in everything from air hockey to Street Fighter tournaments to a weekly trivia night. Legend has it that at the height of Linsanity, one patron was handed the remote by the gregarious owner to put on the game of his choice. He chose hockey. A greater gift has never been given.

Neighborhood: Murray Hill
Address: 591 1st Ave.
Website: pinetreelodgeny.com

Three. Dollar. Yuenglings. Taxidermy.

(Okay, yes—this bar is located in Murray Hill, historically recognized as New York's douche district. But the Pine Tree Lodge is a beacon of hope in an otherwise lost neighborhood for the two very crucial reasons above. Trust.)

Neighborhood: East Village
Address: 125 East 11th St.
Website: nevadasmiths.net

Though Nevada Smith's has the name and look of a knock-off country-western joint, it's actually one of NYC’s top spots for soccer viewing. Perched above Webster Hall, soccer fans with far-flung allegiances flock to Smith's for some old-fashioned hooliganry. Numerous patrons agree that it's a good thing that beers are served in plastic cups, because shit gets heated. Come prepared.

Neighborhood: Park Slope, Brooklyn
Address: 446 Park Place
Website: N/A

While the exterior is sketchy, there's a pearl inside this oyster. From standard sports bar necessities like TVs and pool, to nice flourishes like extensive delivery menus scattered about due to the lack of kitchen, and a weekly game night, this is a solid spot in a neighborhood more closely identified with baby strollers than grown men coming together to watch basketball. (Really, the only strike against Half Court, as the name suggests, is that it's only good for balling.)

Neighborhood: Astoria, Queens
Address: 37-18 28th Ave.
Website: facebook.com/pages/The-Irish-Rover

This is a different kind of sports bar, a wild, unpredictable giant. This is the kind of place you’ll walk into at 10:30 a.m. on a Sunday and see old guys in cabbie hats nursing their beers while watching a little horseracing before the games come on. This is the neighborhood bar you go to after you come home from whatever overpriced night you had in the City. We’ve been in here at 10:30 p.m. and seen it empty, only to swing in at 2:30 a.m. to find it packed. This place rules.

Neighborhood: Upper West Side
Address: 212 West 79th Street
Website: blondiessports.com

Walking into Blondies, you're liable to be greeted by a shouting match between two dudes hotly debating their recent fantasy football drafts. This was our experience, at any rate, on a Monday night at 9:30 p.m. The rancor only grew as the evening progressed, and will only get more ratchet as football season gets rolling. When you go, ask the bartender if this is a Steelers bar. The affirmative guttural response from the regulars is a beautiful, inspiring thing. It's Pittsburgh in Blondies, even during the off-season. This might make some uncomfortable, but just feels like home for us.

Neighborhood: West Village
Address: 59 Christopher St.
Website: kettleoffishnyc.com

This spot has the sophisticated air that you would expect from the West Village, but as seen through a weird lens. Patrons who frequent Kettle of Fish outside of prime sports time report that they were surprised to find out it's a sports bar at all. With the hearth, couches, Scrabble boards, and dictionaries, this is a sports bar for the Grantland reader than the Sports Illustrated subscriber. It only makes sense that this is a Packers bar, as the Packers are collectively owned, and the only thing intellectuals love more than Scrabble is Communism.

Neighborhood: East Village
Address: 221 2nd Ave.
Website: finnertysnyc.com

Finnerty’s is the Bay Area enclave in NYC, and since Niners have finally crawled out of the gross dregs of the NFL, you can show your face here without shame again in the post-Mike Singeltary era. You can even watch Golden State Warriors and San Jose Sharks games here, though no one is quite sure why you'd need to do that. Including the bartenders.

Neighborhood: Alphabet City
Address: 108 Ave. B
Website: N/A

Some sports bars make the cut for game day intensity, precision-engineered nacho platters, and generous plasmas. This is not that bar. This is the kind of bar that you duck into when the Jets and Giants are both playing at 1 p.m. and you would sell your kid sister just to see your beloved Cleveland Browns or Jacksonville Jaguars lose in all their glory. And if you promise to sit in the corner and behave, they might just do that for you. Even on Saturday nights, this spot won't get too crowded, and Sunday regulars report mellow vibes all through game day.

Neighborhood: The Bronx
Address: 836 River Ave.
Website: stanssportsbar.com

Right across the street from the old stadium, Stan’s is the Yankee’s pre-game destination. Raucous, loud, crowded: Everything you would expect from a stadium bar. One patron cited these reasons to go to Stan’s:

1. Get plastered before the game.
2. Get demolished after the game.
3. Have a drink where no one can find you during the off-season.

This makes Stan's not just the quintessential Yankees bar, but the quintessential stadium bar. Fear, jubilation, sadness, shame. The wide world of sports emotions in one legendary space.

Neighborhood: Astoria, Queens
Address: 33-08 Broadway
Website: gleasonsastoria.com

Sometimes a sports bar is awesome because it's fully dedicated to a team and region, right down to the urinal cakes. Gleason’s is great because it's the Rick's Café Américain of sports bars: Everyone is from somewhere else. On one Sunday, we noted Cowboys, Steelers, Niners, Dolphins, and Rams fans at the bar, in addition to a crazy vocal group of Raiders loyalists loaded at a table in the front. A spacious bar with ample TVs, Gleason's is just the spot for those who cannot find a bar for their team, or love their team but hate their team’s fans and would prefer to watch solo (Cowboys, Heat, Red Sox, Patriots, Lakers, and any Philadelphia pro, college or semi-pro team fans: You’re welcome).

Neighborhood: Prospect Heights, Brooklyn
Address: 583 Vanderbilt Ave
Website: woodworkbk.com

Woodwork is a Brooklyn soccer bar with a fiercely loyal following. Online commenters write poems in praise of their love for this spot; they're enchanted by the communal atmosphere created here for footie fans. As one patron remarked, "It doesn’t smell like a bar.” So there's that. Bizarre asides aside, this place is full of good news: no militant hooligans! Major events in other sports, such as Monday Night Football and the World Series, will be played here as well, but the true Woodwork experience comes during a match.

Neighborhood: Park Slope, Brooklyn
Address: 82 4th Ave.
Website: pacificstandardbrooklyn.com

Though us East Coasters have little love for a West Coast sports bar, Pacific Standard, a shrine to California and friends, asks that we reconsider our position. First off, respect for matching their beer list with their allegiances, as they stock a number of beers that you don't often see in NY. With quirky bookshelf-laden décor and board games available to idle away the sports-less hours, this spot has far more personality than the standard beers, wings, and waitresses-in-dumb-referee-uniforms-with-boobs-popping of your standard American sports bar. On Mondays, two drafts go on $3 special. Are you ready for some … calling out of work Tuesday morning from a Brooklyn gutter!

Neighborhood: East Village
Address: 219 2nd Ave.
Website: professorthoms.com

Though Michigan Wolverines fans whose lives have taken them from Ann Arbor to Gotham are already familiar with Professor Thom’s, we have to recommend it for sports fans of all allegiances—unless you're a Buckeye or Spartan. The Professor has arranged televisions of every conceivable size and angle all around (sometimes with no sense of logic, but that's part of the appeal), even planting one in each booth. Combined with his huge nacho platters and “The Loft” upstairs, for private parties and events, this wonderfully odd dive is one of the best destinations for a non-corporate sports experience in the city.

Neighborhood: Upper East Side
Address: 1770 2nd Ave.
Website: mannysonsecond.com

For those of you who thought the Upper East Side had nothing to offer outside of aging trophy wives with purse dogs and stuck-up teenage airheads with their own yachts, we give you Manny’s on Second. Manny’s goes above and beyond the call of duty, pledging to screen every single game during the NFL season, and they take great pains to coordinate seating accordingly. Combine this feat with 24 beers on tap, a passion for wings, and a complimentary iPhone charging station, and Manny's has effectively cemented its position as an oasis amidst the botox-injected natives. Get over the fact that all your friends are below 14th street, or in Brooklyn, and stop in. Added bonus: They have Xboxes for you to play if you want to simulate your team actually winning.

Neighborhood: East Village
Address: 43 East 7th St.
Website: standingsbar.com

Nestled on the same block as McSorley's, another landmark, Standings is small, unassuming. You might walk by and not take stock of it (despite the earnest sign), though it's the best sports bar in New York. Inside, you'll find that jerseys and banners hang from the ceiling, and the walls are adorned with sports paraphernalia like a warm blanket to wrap yourself in. The owner, who must bunk on a cot behind the bar, is good to chat up. He'll readily explain that the bar refuses to play music—just the audio from the games here. Standings offers free food, usually pizza or wings, during games, and the beer list is careful. That might have to something to do with the owner's friendship with Jimmy of Jimmy's No. 43, the craft beer bar located downstairs. No posturing, no allegiances, no bullshit, just the games. Throw in free food and good beer, and it's a wrap. No one does it better.