Outdoor Bars
Repeat after us: Stop name-dropping the Bohemian Hall & Beer Garden. Same goes double for the Gowanus Yacht Club. Come springtime, these bars crown every clichéd "best outdoor" list. And reiterating what you know would make us very bad journalists. To earn our keep, we've ferreted out a fine armada of ceiling-free establishments. Whether on heavy-metal patios or Red Hook rooftops, it's going to be a long, hot summer of open-air inebriation.
Staten Island Ferry
Couple-buck Budweiser tall boys make this free boat ride the poor man's Caribbean cruise. Tip your 1-6 to Lady Liberty and join the raccoon-eyed dads pounding Coors so they can face their families.
Pentop Bar
700 Fifth Ave. (55th St.)
212-903-3097
Tired of sidewalks that smell like open sewage? Soar above the muck at the Pentop, situated on the Peninsula Hotel's 23rd-floor roof. Sure, the cost of one drink could feed an Iraqi orphan for a week, but stellar sunsets and Central Park views compensate for breaking the piggy bank.
Athens Café
32-01 30th Ave. (betw. 32nd & 33rd Sts.)
718-626-2164
Splay your keister at this sprawling sidewalk cafe amid unidentifiable European movie stars, swarthy Greek lotharios and cleavage-baring women sucking back Marlboro Reds and condensation-slick Coronas. It's awesome yet scary, like licking a nine-volt battery.
Cabin Club at Pinetree Lodge
326 E. 35th St. (betw. 1st & 2nd Aves.)
212-481-5490
Too old and hairy for summer camp? So what. You have the Pinetree, a camp-like hunting lodge loaded with oars and inner tubes. Shoot a game of pool on the ginormous back patio and dampen the humidity with a slushy treat from the frozen-drink machine.
The Delancey
168 Delancey St. (Clinton St.)
212-254-9920
In the frigid months, avoid this multi-tiered hipster suck pit like a bloody outbreak of Marburgh virus. Come spring, though, the wooden roof deck opens and you can sip Budweiser beneath the stars-and launch a loogie on patrons dawdling on the sidewalk.
Buster's Garage
180 W. B'way (betw. Leonard & Worth Sts.)
212-226-6811
Backward baseball hats represent at Tribeca's grease-monkey garage turned ode to college. Join men and women with great teeth on the massive patio where, on Wednesday nights, there's beer pong and eight-dollar pitchers.
Rudy's
627 9th Ave. (betw. 44th & 45th Sts.)
212-974-9169
Yeah, yeah, yeah; we know Rudy's is no secret. But sweet Jesus, does it get any better than sitting in the concrete "backyard" and getting' all sloppy and Midwestern on free hot dogs and seven-dollar pitchers of beer?
Good World Bar & Grill
3 Orchard St. (betw. Division & Canal Sts.)
212-925-9975
On Chinatown's blackened streets sits this Scandinavian-themed haunt, situated inside a former barbershop and rub-and-tug parlor. What's this mean? Absolutely nothing, but ponder the ghosts of happy endings past as you sip away troubles in the patio sanctuary.
Supreme Trading
213 N. 8th St. (betw. Roebling St. & Driggs Ave.)
718-218-6538
Supreme Trading is Billyburg's hot spot du jour, where sweaty college kids grind each other like crazed Dobermans. Dry humping ain't our scene, but we love sitting on the gym bleachers in Trading's 800-square-foot concrete garden and forfeiting the three-dollar Bud special in favor of our own contraband booze.
L.I.C. Bar
45-58 Vernon Blvd. (betw. 45th Rd. & 46th Ave.)Queens
718-786-5400
Located on the distant tip of post-industrial Long Island City, L.I.C. is a tin-ceilinged throwback to old-world taverns. Plop down in the backyard garden, where weeping willows droop like crazy and conversation flows as sweet as a chocolate river.
Duff's
28 N. 3rd St. (Kent Ave.) Brooklyn
718-302-0411
Duff's-a Kleenex-sized former check-cashing joint-is loaded with floor-to-ceiling horror kitsch that spills out onto a wooden patio perfect for sunning away pasty punk-rock complexions. Need more incentive? Try one-dollar PBRs and free wienie roasts.
Cavo Café
42-18 31st Ave. (betw. 42nd & 43rd Sts.) Queens
718-721-1001
It's not often a bar is big enough to hold a bullfight, but such is Cavo's agoraphobic beauty. In the garden-with lush flowers and sumptuous greenery, it could double as a lost tropical isle-sip some icy white wine and chew on grilled octopus tentacle
St. Helen Cafe
150 Wythe Ave. (betw. N. 7th & N. 8th Sts.)Brooklyn
718-302-1197
A java joint by day (the Seattleite owners serve nuclear-strength espresso), by night St. Helen teems with low-key beer and wine sippers. They crowd the dainty garden and, amoeba-like, absorb the mood set by the latest indie soundtrack.
d.b.a.
41 First Ave. (betw. 2nd & 3rd Sts.)
212-475-5097
When we're bored of drinking flat beer with underage college kids, we head to d.b.a., h.q. for the East Village's best brew and garden. Grab something blonde, foreign and mysterious and drink yourself into a fine backyard buzz.
Boat Basin Café
79th St. Boat Basin (79th St. & Riverside Dr., on the Hudson River)
212-496-5542
Do you enjoy watching people exercise more than breaking a sweat yourself? Spend an inebriated afternoon at the Boat Basin Café (read: a shack with Ikea patio furniture) thanking and cursing the gods who invented Spandex.
Hudson Beach Café
105th St. & Riverside Park
212-973-1900
A further-uptown sibling to the Boat Basin, Hudson Beach is a no-frills, bilevel bar located above an Amtrak tunnel. You and 120 of your closest friends can drain frosty beers on the patio and ogle nearby volleyball players.
Liberty Heights Tap Room
34 Van Dyke St. (Dwight St.) Brooklyn
718-246-8050
Amidst far Red Hook's school-bus depots sits this alfresco gem. Climb to the roof for vertigo-inducing views of Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty, then calm your nerves with Sixpoint Craft Ale-it's brewed right next door.
Moonshine
317 Columbia St. (betw. Woodhull St. & Hamilton Ave.)Brooklyn
718-422-0563
Break out the cow, baby! Moonshine is BYOM: bring your own meat! Moonshine provides grill, plates, condiments and charcoal-the ingredients for turning the backyard into a private BBQ. To wash down the ground chuck, buy a pail of four Arctic-cold beers for five bucks.