Yankee Tavern

A block from Yankee Stadium at the corner of 161st Street and Gerard Avenue, the Yankee Tavern has been pouring since the 1920s — the sign and the stories disagree on the exact year, but everyone agrees it predates almost everything around it. The Bastone family has run it for generations, and the walls tell the rest: photographs of the old stadium, a signed picture of Joe DiMaggio, a bat signed by Yogi Berra, and murals of Mantle and Gehrig. Babe Ruth, the story goes, bought rounds here.

It is a sports bar first, with a dozen beers on tap and more in bottles, TVs for every game, and a kitchen turning out bar food at prices the stadium will not match. On game days it is shoulder to shoulder before first pitch and stays open after the last out; in the off-season it is a quieter neighborhood room where the Knicks and Rangers are on and the regulars know the bartender.