Stan’s Sports Bar is part of a series of tidbits from the chapters of my book Bars, Taverns and Dives New Yorkers Love, published by Rizzoli. You can order it online at Powell’s, Amazon, Rizzoli, and Barnes & Noble. Signed prints of the bars in the book are available here.
Look, if you’re going to a game at Yankee Stadium, go big. Make a day of it. Go early, go to Stan’s Sports Bar, belly up, order a beer, and get caught up in it. Get into it, man. Feel the enthusiasm build. Are the Yankees winning? Good. All the better. Are they in a slump? Tough. You’ve got your expensive tickets, now enjoy the hell out of this day with your friends.
Stan’s is only open on days of events at the stadium, so with 81 regular season home games, some soccer, a few concerts, and the occasional papal visit, that comes to about 90–100 days a year, according to co-owner Mike Rendino. Typically, they open the doors about three hours before game time, and stay open for one or two hours after the last out.
Before the game, it’s pandemonium in Stan’s, so you’d better have your big boy pants on. Capacity is 270, but the place is tight. The oval bar is huge and takes up a lot of room, so the crowd feels larger. People! People everywhere! You and 269 others: Beefy, thick-neck Staten Island dudes, rich Manhattan girls in cutesy Yankees hats, tourists who’ve been looking forward to this day all year, in their brand-new Yanks jerseys. Jeter, Jeter, Jeter. TONS of Jeter merch everywhere you look. The Man himself filmed part of Gatorade’s operatic “My Way” commercial at Stan’s in his final season, and there’s a signed picture behind the bar to prove it.
Before the game, everyone’s hunkered down in Stan’s Sports Bar, together, like a team in the dugout, getting ready, anticipating the first pitch. Tension builds and builds and then, at game time, boom. Everyone bolts out of there, ready to go.
Best Time to Visit: Before any home game, especially, says Rendino, a 4 p.m. Saturday afternoon game. On those days, Stan’s opens at 10 a.m. and people come in early for a good, long pre-game party before heading over to the stadium.
Best Seat in the House: Not a seat, but a stand, on the far side of the bar, so you’re facing the out, across the bar, toward the crowd streaming by on 161st.
Drink: Start with a big, cold beer. How about a Coors in a tall, 24-ounce can? That’s pretty big, bro. Next drink: another beer. Why mess with success?
Next up:
Shrine of Harlem, one of the sweetest li’l music clubs in Manhattan and another chapter of my book Bars, Taverns and Dives New Yorkers Love, which you can order right here. Limited-edition signed prints of the bars are available here.