New York

When you need a cloistered drinking sanctum, it's easy to find a cocktail lounge -- but what about when you want to intimately caress the full-bodied beer of your dreams? Descend into 124 Rabbit Club, opening tomorrow.

An unmarked cellar reminiscent of Midtown's Single Room Occupancy, Rabbit's a partnership between a Death & Co/Bourgeois Pig founder and a former manager of CBGB (who thinks you're the bourgeois pig). Walk down the stairs and buzz the door, and you'll be ushered into a well-appointed sleeve w/ a long brass bar, fuzzy felt wallpaper, and candle votives made from broken beer bottles -- because in such a princely establishment, it's declassé to expect fighting patrons to break their own. Choose from a 30-strong beer list from Ireland, England, Germany, Belgium and the Czech Republic, highlighted by the freeze-distilled Kulmbacher Eisbock, and the winter porter Santa's Butt -- a slightly less crippling body image problem than "Elf Wang".

Grub's hearty Bavarian (pretzel bread sandwiches, pickle platters, etc), and there're also 30 old world wines and wine cocktails -- because to keep beer from taking you for granted, sometimes you need to date its friend.