As Harold Hill sang in The Music Man, “that game with the fifteen numbered balls is the devil’s tool.” Anyone who has ever had his or her drink knocked over by some aspiring Fast Eddie Felson's pool stick will agree. There are, however, a few bars in town where you can find classic table games that don’t involve sinking the “fat lady.”

In the last ten years, Smith Street has been transformed from a seedy, pothole-ridden, downright frightening thoroughfare (the scene at the end of Goodfellas where Lorraine Bracco meets up with Robert DeNiro in a desolate area and frantically drives away, takes place on Smith). It's now considered to be Brooklyn's restaurant row and has been keeping up in the bar department too, offering something for everybody.

In the last decade, Smith Street has been transformed from a seedy, pothole-ridden, downright frightening thoroughfare to Brooklyn's very own restaurant row. It's also been keeping up in the bar department, offering something for everybody.

When Mets fans are optimistic, tulips bloom on Park Avenue, and drink menus get fruity, you know what season it is. These five clubs celebrate spring with their own special cocktails.

Someday, the Vernon Blvd./Jackson Ave. area of Long Island City might get one of those ridiculous names defining its boundaries. NoLIE (North of the Long Island Expressway)? SoSA (Somewhere South of Astoria)? For now, though, it's just plain old LIC, an industrial and relatively affordable place to live for the young and artistic. Vernon Boulevard is referred to by some as the strip, but the stretch is more accurate: If you go out drinking in LIC, wear your walking shoes.

Six spots where multitasking New Yorkers can grab a drink—and a manicure, a latte, or a unique work of art.

Coarse and utilitarian Houston is looking a bit shinier these days, if a little more coldly corporate. Joining the luxury apartments and soon-to-open Whole Foods at Avalon Chrystie Place are a handful of new bars that are almost upscale.

Six clubs where you’ll have more to contend with than a velvet rope.

Suffering from seasonal affective disorder? Five new boîtes provide cold-weather oases.

You can get free pub grub with your happy hour if you know who's serving it. Twelve bars where the calories come complimentary.