Bar of the Week: The Big Lug

The thriving downtown bear scene that prowls Westside dens like the Dugout, Ty's and The Eagle NYC has a cozy new East Village cave to hibernate in this winter. This basement boîte is an offshoot of owner/manager Alfredo Troche's long running Tuesday-night furfest at Nowhere Bar, and promotes itself as a "friendly, reliable, neighborhood men's bar." It's seven nights a week of playful theme parties and cheap booze. A pint of Heineken costs just $5, but for real skinflints there are $3 cans of PBR and Milwaukee's Best. The bar's logo, a cartoonish lunk who bears more than a passing resemblance to Popeye's old nemesis Bluto, signals that Big Lug doesn't take itself too seriously. The maroon walls festooned with framed ads for men's grooming products from the '70s give the place a pleasingly retro, post-Stonewall vibe that's a refreshing contrast to the typical non-decor of most places that cater to the manly-man set. A visit to Thursday night's trucker party found a surprising number of Skinny Minnies swaying to the deep house of DJs Bill Pfeiffer and Paul Ferrer, but there were also plenty of beards and bellies to keep the big game hunters warm on a long winter night. Angelo Pitillo

85 Ave. A, (212) 673-1775.