Tuesday 2nd of December 2008 10:20:03 PM

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This was close to my hotel and it boosted 100 beers, so I had to check it out. This is a split level bar with one set of stairs leading you up and one set leading you down. I chose the down stairs.

The room is long an narrow with a bar on one side and tables in the back. Everyone seems to congregate on the bottom step so I slipped to the back which was quite open.

The waitress was training a new girl that night and I found it particular entertaining to hear her give her critic of how the bar runs and the explanation of beers. Her heart was in the right place.

The food menu was the run of the mill canned pub food but I thought you can't go wrong with the Shepard's pie. It was pretty lack luster but hot and greasy but that is what I was looking for even though it was a bit of a small portion and a bit dry.

They do have quite a lot of beers but you can have lots of beers without having anything to interesting. I was hoping for some seasonal NY beers that I couldn't get at every supermarket and that turned out to be a tall order. They had a large selection of beers you can find throughout the US but not many small local brews. The few that I found turned out to be bombers and I didn't really want to hang around the ear defining music to drink an entire bomber.

This place has a definite chain feel to it and I might stop in if they have some more local beers on the menu next time but there are to many great places for food and beers for me to make this a must hit on the next trip to NYC.

Sunday 16th of September 2007 06:25:43 PM

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Beer: A decent selection of domestic beers on tap, but not such a great selection of imported tap beers. They make up for this in quality, however: Delirium Tremens and Chimay Trippel on tap is nice to see. An OK good bottle selection somewhat makes up for this shortfall. No cider on tap and only Magners and Woodpecker Perry in bottles. They have correct glassware for the Chimay but not for the DT.

Food: The burgers are great if somewhat expensive. That's all I've had here.

Atmosphere: The music is a touch loud and the bar fills up quickly, though there is adequate seating at tables around the bar. Large screens broadcast sports but the volume of the commentary was off on both of my visits. Though I like the place I don't feel the atmosphere is much to shout about -- it screams mid-town beer bar making much of its money off office workers. No cask ale either, sadly. But, I came back. make of that what you will.