Burnside
506 Grand St., nr. Union Ave., Williamsburg; 347-889-7793
For a bar in a neighborhood racked with aggressively themed bars (Nautical! Leather! New ­Orleans– y!), everything here is delightfully low-key—from the T-shirt-clad crowd to the décor, or lack thereof (decaying walls, spartan wooden seats). Still, Burnside improves upon your typical Ann Arbor dive: Beyond the boisterous games of shuffleboard and solid beer-and-bourbon menu, not to mention delicious deep-fried cheese curds ($4 to $6), you’ll find dozens of flatteringly lit nooks and crannies to host more intimate moments (including benches reminiscent of wood-burning saunas, or the covertly situated seats on Burnside’s patio).