Manhattan Red Sox Bar Thumbs Nose at Yankees

"No spitting. No foul language. No Yankee fans."

A sign inside the Boston (212) Cafe in New York City

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NEW YORK -- Dana Metes is tired of the taunts.

A lifelong Boston Red Sox fan, she was born and raised in New Hampshire but now lives here. And wearing a Red Sox hat or T-shirt on the sidewalks of New York can be an adventure, she has found.

"I've had people yell nasty things at me in public," the lawyer said. "And people can get pretty rowdy at Yankee Stadium when you go there wearing a Red Sox hat. Now that the season is beginning, I'm sure it's going to heat up all over again."

It goes with the territory here in Yankee land -- a fact of life amid baseball's fiercest fan rivalry. So Boston fans living in the Big Apple mostly suffered in silence, given their history of losing to the Bronx Bombers.

But now, with a World Series championship finally under their belts, many are walking tall. The question is: Where to party?

There are thousands of Red Sox faithful in New York. Many of them jammed into a handful of local bars last fall to cheer as Boston humiliated the Yankees in a seven-game playoff series, then beat St. Louis in the World Series. Watering holes like the Riviera in Greenwich Village offered a place to watch the games in safety.

But those saloons had become Red Sox magnets by accident; die-hards were just as likely to find Yankee fans or tourists sitting next to them.

Now, the city's first bar designed for Beantown fans has opened its doors in Manhattan. And the crudely written sign at the entrance to Boston (212) Cafe, hanging next to T-shirts mocking the Yankees, sets the tone.

The bar's slogan is "Think Outside the Bronx," and backers say the goal is to give native New Englanders a sports and cultural home away from home.

"We want to capture all of the passions and the hunger of New Englanders who are displaced here in New York City and very much need a place of their own to go," said Charlie Garland, a marketing executive who helped start the business.

"We're focusing initially on baseball, but ultimately we want to be a home away from home for all of the people who miss Cape Cod in the summer. This place is for people who love authentic New England clam chowder and truly dislike the Yankees."

The bar, which had its grand opening Friday, is a little hard to find. It's in the basement of an Italian restaurant on Madison Avenue at 28th Street. Boston (212) Cafe holds about 150 people; the "212" refers to Manhattan's area code.