Niagara opened in 1997 at 112 Avenue A, right on the edge of Tompkins Square Park, and the founding partners were Jesse Malin, Johnny T, and Laura McCarthy, coming out of the East Village music scene at a moment when that scene still had edges. The bar is named after the falls, and if you've been there you understand why.

Over the years it has hosted Murphy's Law, Bad Brains, Joe Strummer, and Steve Buscemi, which is a particular kind of East Village credential that no newer bar can claim because the era it required no longer exists. The programming still runs toward live music and DJs, the drinks are priced to reflect the neighborhood's original character even if that neighborhood has evolved, and the space stays open until four in the morning nightly. Indoor and outdoor seating, daily happy hour specials on draft beer and well drinks.

What Niagara has is history that's been lived in rather than preserved. It still looks like a bar where things happen rather than a bar where things used to happen, which is the distinction that keeps it from being a museum.