The Stand

When New York Magazine voted The Stand as the "Best Comedy Club" in all of New York, they could have based that accolade on the comedic talent alone. The intimate, 80-seat downstairs performance space tends to attract household names such as Janeane Garafolo, Todd Barry, Judah Friedlander, and Artie Lange to its familiar brick-wall-and-mic setup, along with curated crops of comedy's next big things. Yet it's the one-two punch of comedy club and restaurant that sets The Stand above the city's other chuckle huts. In the upstairs lair of chef Seth Levine, twists on traditional pub fare such as bone-marrow dumplings, Peking-duck pizzas, and Nutella fondue pots induce belly laughs that are actually the sound of bellies laughing. The cocktails, which New York Magazine claims "put other other clubs' bottom-shelf concoctions to shame," include mixologist marvels such as "The Boozler," which melds pre-prohibition style gin with pear puree and fresh muddled taragon.