The Four-Faced Liar

Sturdy wooden tables and a sea-blue-and-gold motif create a lazy pub atmosphere at this West Village saloon. Friendly barkeeps dispense 20-ounce drafts of Guinness and affordable, if basic, highballs. Avoid the Banana Republican louts who invade the place on Saturdays; show up on Sunday instead for the biweekly Frequency poetry series, which has been known to draw bookish types, including staffers from literary magazine The Believer.