Park Slope's Lighthouse Tavern is decorated in a nautical theme—life rings, boat lanterns, little model lighthouses—perhaps to make all those yachters up from the Gowanus Canal feel at home. Well, we hope the boaty set enjoys this bar as much as the locals, who appreciate it not as the city's biggest or best sports bar, but as very likely the least obnoxious. Cheering, yes. Team loyalty, of course. Multiple satellite broadcasts, a given. But the Lighthouse's generally progressive neighborhood and its small, narrow size seem to discourage the boorish, bear-sized assholes one has to endure at a lot of places. Here, you can enjoy a wide draft-beer selection and the NCAAs in a convivial adult atmosphere, free of barking yahoos. The Lighthouse also manages to avoid oppressive "homerism"—this good-natured spot is a veritable democracy of team enthusiasms, a mosaic of fandom, a (insert your own strained sports metaphor here).

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243 Fifth Avenue, Brooklyn
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Phone: 718-788-8070