Mott Haven Bar and Grill

For a time, Bruckner Boulevard, in the South Bronx, was known mostly for being a wrong turn off the Triborough Bridge in “The Bonfire of the Vanities.” These days, it’s the pulsing heart of the scene known as SoBro. At the Mott Haven Bar and Grill, at the end of Bruckner, you can sit at a marble bar top and watch competitive arm wrestling on a screen while listening to nineties dance hits. What’s good to drink? “Mott Haven and the Bronx,” says Javie, the hoop-eared master of ceremonies, naming two beers on tap. Ask him nicely and he’ll muddle up a Jameson mojito, which tastes a little like a mojito, but mostly like Jameson. Fridays are packed with Bronx politicians, local business folk, and teachers. “Hipsters came here for a bit, but after a while they left. I guess they couldn’t hack it,” Javie said, on a recent evening. “Or they were just too lazy to learn Spanish,” said Rebecca, a Bronx-bred regular who met Javie on the outlaw rave scene (“Back then you followed the noise of the beat”). Later, two liquored guests asked a group of young Bronxites smoking outside if walking back across the bridge to Manhattan was a good idea. One replied, “I’ve never been so bold.” The guests took that as a challenge. The air off the Harlem River never smelled fresher. ♦