Last month the construction paper came off Bayard’s Ale House (no relation to Bayard’s — the new place is named after the builder of its 1826 edifice, formerly home of Sazerac House). The new owners operated establishments in Ireland before managing Noho Star and Smith & Wollensky; we don’t know what they did with the portrait of Quentin Crisp that used to hang over wine bottles, but they’ve at least retained some Sazerac chefs to keep turning out crab cakes (but not jambalaya, for better or worse). The main thing here is the twenty beers on tap, but as the menu shows, touches like a burger with horseradish sour cream and, for brunch, a bagel with salmon and citrus cream cheese indicate this may be slightly smarter than your average pub. —Daniel Maurer