Pete’s Candy Store

On our list of the best live music venues in New York.

A Pullman-car-shaped stage anchors the back room of this Williamsburg bar, a space that was a general store, then a diner, then a poker room before becoming a music venue in 1999. Live acts play nightly, and Wednesday trivia runs six rounds for a bar-tab prize. Pressed sandwiches and a grilled cheese round out the front bar's food menu alongside cheap beer, and a backyard behind the stage gives room to step outside between sets.