Bourbon Street, Chelsea

Everyday is Fat Tuesday at this Upper West Side Mardi Gras-themed dive, whose flat screen TVs looping flasher-footage serve to inspire its already rowdy crowd. Brick walls are covered with Christmas lights, Jack Daniels signs and hundreds of bras—presumably coaxed off the backs of the college girls encouraged to dance on the bar. Despite a $4 cover for guys, hordes of polo-wearing prepsters gather around the pool table and low wooden benches at the back of the bar. Like in a frat house, cheap beer is the name of the game here and it flows in the form of 50 cent Bud drafts, which regularly pack people in. On the rare occasion the bar experiences a lull, you can bust out Guitar Hero on Xbox or Wii on the big screen that's normally dominated by sports.