New York: Top 5 Places for Brokers & Bankers to Drink the Pain Away

Kinda nutty day, no? So much for bottle service at Cain. Corporate rounds at Tenjune? Forget it. Even a bottle of Pinot Noir at Pastis might be too much to handle for all the financial types who saw their immediate futures evaporate over the weekend. It's no secret that when the nightcrawlers of Wall Street go out, they go big. That won't be the case anymore, but they'll still need to drown their troubles somewhere. New Wall Street landscape means new nightlife landscape. So employees of Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, AIG, and others -- here's some on-the-cheap bars you might want to check out, and some extra-happy happy hours you might want to jot down in that company Blackberry you'll soon be turning over to regulators.

Since the Beatrice Inn might be out of your new price range, head around the corner to Corner Bistro for mugs of criminally cheap McSorley’s. The waterfront bar Ear Inn is one of New York’s oldest bars (est. 1817); there’s little doubt that back in 1929, your predecessors came to this watering hole to obliterate similar woes (those who didn’t jump out of their office windows, anyway). What you need is a classic East Village dive bar with some tunes to help you forget. International Bar is known for its extensive jukebox and inexpensive bevvies. Grab some whiskey, put on “What a Wonderful World,” and try and believe it.

The biggest shock might come when you suddenly realize how pricey Manhattan suddenly feels. Thankfully, there’s a whole other city across the East River known as Brooklyn, where the drinks tend to be cheaper and the females less generically hot (thank God for the cheap drinks, am I right?). An all-purpose joint you’ll never have to (or want to) leave: Bar Reis in Park Slope. Three-buck beers, garden, loft space, and cheap quesadillas make utter financial ruin seem like nothing more than a trip to the dentist. Finally, since your spouse will have left you, and no one your age will want someone whose life is in shambles, head over to Bar None in the East Village. It’s the ultimate NYU hangout, where happy hour lasts eight hours a day and drinks are cheaper than the girls you’re likely to pick up. But if both of you drink hard enough and squint hard enough, she’ll still look sophisticated and you’ll still look rich.