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This venue is closed.

With its concept-free amalgam of bar, pool table, jukebox and pinball machine, Dick's is to most East Village gay bars what Edith Piaf is to Cher. There's nary a couch (or a theme) in sight, and the dark but comfortable layout is free of the cruise-or-die desperation that mars many more colorful watering holes. Nightly drink specials with names you can actually recognize are a welcome touch as well. Regulars include indie-rock celebutant Stephin Merritt, who can be found on any given night scribbling in his notebook alongside his pooch. Musical Mondays is Dick's informal showtune party built around marvelously resourceful collages of tear-jerking, toe-tapping Hollywood camp clips shown on the bar's TVs. If you haven't been in a while, be sure to check out the new digital jukebox. We know, we know—the old jukebox was perfection. Don't worry: The new one has all the same eighties classics but now provides more of a mix—Kraftwerk meets Missy Elliot. — Bruce Bennett