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This mild-mannered bar is located amid the unofficial university town below Union Square. Nothing about this downtown tunnel into Anywhere, America, hints at the prime real estate lying outside its simple confines: not its ketchup-and-mustard comfort foods, its cramped pool corner, or its flat-screen-sports-bar service (all delivered with an effective shrug). Not quite divey enough to host the overeager freshman class, it's better pegged as an island of respite for the thirsty everyman, even as it grows loud and balmy on Saturday nights like every other college-ready pub. This spot is the absolute converse of the boutique lounges that sacrifice casual affordability for urbane atmospherics. — Patrick Coffee