Ace Bar

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Ace's vast, three-segmented interior feels like a food court devoted to booze. Pinball machines and a display of vintage lunchboxes rule the loungey front area. In the middle section, Ace's young and broke denizens down $3 PBR at the beautiful old bar. Further back, there's a game outfitted with two Skee-ball lanes and Big Buck Hunter. It's large enough that players bent over the two red-felt pool tables never risk accidental puncture from even the most inept darts enthusiast. Despite the self-consciously nostalgic décor, the playpen vibe is for real. Depending on which side of thirty you drink from, Ace is either refreshingly free of aging East Village hipsters, or it feels like a Chuck E. Cheese's for alcoholic co-eds. — Bruce Bennett

A true prize among Ace Bar's display of eBay-worthy collectibles is a huge, 3D werewolf picture that growls at you from opposite the bar. When originally deployed as bus shelter advertisements for a short-lived Fox series in the late '80s, these pieces of trash art became so coveted that they triggered a citywide epidemic of shelter thefts.

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