Gentleman Jim's Bistro

This is the best value in the area. If you like a good beer selection and pub grub, this is the place for you. You won't drop a mint in here.
It has a nice local neighborhood atmosphere.
The staff is friendly, they care and they do listen to you.
The food is lacking but the low prices more than make up for that.
They have a good selection of beers on tap. They are not always the freshest, but they will take the beer back if you are not satisfied.

Definitely a place worth visiting. And a great place to put on the regular stop list. Also, if you like wings they have a great deal on them, one of the best values around.

Work stint in Kingston, NY + Beerfly access = excursion to area brewpub. It's a simple formula really. Located east of Poughkeepsie on rte 44, you enter through a wheelchair accessible ramp where you can view the brewing vessels inside. There are tables in some rooms off to the left and the bar's to the right. A decent amount of regulars there drinking bottled macros and playing Keno but I'm here for the beer and dinner. It's an older crowd and "yikes!!! it's oxygen lady" (I thought ecoboy was kiddin' but there she was, tubes stickin' out of her head and all having a smoke and a beer). I started with the Poughkeepsie Porter which was a really nice beer. Full bodied, healthily malty, solidly chocolately with a nice hop finish. My second beer was the Butternut Brown, which was light, sweetish and nutty, a nice representation of the English brown style. I had dinner at the bar (Duck a'la orange, baked potato, some vegetable I'm sure, and a "Hey, go help yourself to the full salad bar in the dining room"). Food was very good.
I kept it to 2 beers before braving the 100 mile trudge down the Taconic in the dead of night with one headlight out. Someone told me a day or two later that they were done brewing beer. I said I was there 2 days ago and they were brewing (hell, I drank their beer) and was told that I must have caught the tail end of it. Hope this ain't the case.

Another in a long line of places that would have to put more effort into appealing to my demographic to get higher scores. Ageist? Sorry if it bothers you. I just don't enjoy beer while watching a woman hooked up to an oxygen tank.

This is a well-attended, I'd even say packed place on a weekend at dinnertime. The bar was really smoky and filled with regulars (read: older regulars who really have a fine long-term relationship with alcohol.) We had to stand, and with the low ceilings and a lot of people watching the TV's, there is little comfortable standing room. I'd want to get a seat next time or move on. I dislike dodging waitstaff while trying to enjoy a beer.

Many at the bar sipped cocktails or Bud and that's OK by me; there are plenty of times that an establishment's beers are outstanding and overlooked by the older demo. This place was not as successful. Blarney Stone Bitter was pretty good, with some nice hop floral aroma. But the Renegade Red struck me as lifeless and undistinctive in any way.

Maybe when I get another fifteen years on, this will be the place for me.

6-20-03* NO LONGER A BREW PUB.* This is a review of what uswed to be.
Im sorry I havent taken the time to review Gent Jims before now. I'm also sorry Longstaff had such a bad experience. While I admit the bar atmosphere leaves much to be desired, I have always enjoyed the beers made by Brewer John Calen. Rather than juke boxes or video games the entertainment here is NYS Lotto and Keno. I usually grab a control pad and play trivia. This place is a nieghborhood bar/ resturaunt and is often full of regulars and local people, who are usually friendly and talkative. Located just east of Poughkkepsie on Rt. 44.
Dining room ( great salad bar) is on the left as you enter, bar is on the right. The bar is large and square, w/ seating for @ 25 +/-. Several well made beers are available at all times. Sweet Shelia's Wheat , named after the owners wife, is a crisp, slightly tart American style wheat beer. The Brown Ale is one of the most popular, light in body, nice nutty sweetness on the order of and English Mild. The Red ale is the hoppiest, with Vienna and crystal malt balance. The Best Bitter has good aroma and bittering from Goldings hops and is a very drinkable session beer. The Poughkeepsie Porter is rich in chocolate malt with a firm hop finish. Without a doubt Stout is just that, big and robust, sweet and chewy up front great hop flavors and dry finish. Seasonals compliment this list of mainstays. The Old Ale at Christmas was a fine Winter warmer and the most recent Ive had was a Scotch Ale, that, once it warmed up, was big and malty, slightly smokey and warmingly alcoholic.
Food is good with standard American cusine ie: steaks, chops, seafood, and great bar specials on shrimp and wings. Dinners are well priced with generous portions. Bar staff usually knows little about whats on tap, and while beers sometimes seems less carbonated than they should be, overall I enjoy the beers at Gent. Jims, and have for years. They serve the beer too cold and its always shamefull to see how much macro crap passes over the bar, but its our first local Brew pub and I have a soft spot in my heart for it despite its short commings. I just wish they would force people to drink thier beers so they can convert even more swill drinkers! Ive sat at that bar many times, and there are alot of customers that used to drink bud and coors and now drink something made fresh in thier local brew pub.
That can only be a good thing.

If you are thinking of going out of your way to try the beers, save some time and don't go - the beers aren't worth it. Atmosphere in the bar is dark and even though the bar is quite large, the space where you sit is cramped since they squeezed in some tables that really don't belong. As for the beer - they taste like they were homebrewed using extract and no specialty grains. Pretty much boring with little flavor. All styles were different colors but tasted alike. The red ale was hoppier than the IPA?. It looks like they sell more Bud and other crap than their own beer. Food is decent with homestyle comfort foods and a wurst platter that was huge.