Bar of the Week: Village Pourhouse

Beware of a visual barrage on the corner of 11th Street and Third Avenue: flashing yellow and red Broadway lights, a giant neon hand lifting a giant neon mug and a running ticker reading, "Over 80 Beers." A bar hasn't had this much neon since Homer invented the Flaming Moe. Despite the tacky turnoffs, a loud post-work crowd fills Village Pourhouse on White Trash Mondays for 25-cent wings, $8 Bud Light pitchers and $2 Natty Light cans (in brown bags!). Rumor has it there's a crowd on Saturday afternoons when the bar's numerous huge flat screens play to football-hungry Virginia Tech and Georgia alums. It does seem like a college bar (cute co-eds and loud groups of friends) and isn't without those people that smart New Yorkers avoid (is that guy sitting alone with five Bud drafts?). Village Pourhouse is from the same owners who brought us the trashy Proof, so it's no surprise to find the same lowbrow set here. Unless you crave their most exotic brew, Chimay, skip this scene and head over to someplace like d.b.a. (41 First Avenue), where they rotate the taps and the crowd is less annoying. 64 Third Ave.,, (212) 979-BEER. Nina Weiss