Forest Hills Station House

Great selection of beers on tap including many of the locals. These are displayed on digital screens. There are televisions everywhere playing all sports. When I went, it was a crowded Saturday afternoon. Yet, it was not so loud and overwhelming. I did not have the food, but will next time. A decent spot in a cool neighborhood.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Saturday afternoon on Queens Fucking Blvd. Enough said. Halfway between work behind me and work play stint tonight a few hours away so I’m just killing time. Seventy first and circled, parked Muni meter love. Do you not know who I am? Not where I thought it was but didn’t really have an addy so what do I know? Still, I foooound it...

Deep place. In and to the right some, a ‘C’ shaped slab topped bar with a laminate wood trim, horizontal plank wood base, & squared foot rail; seating for 18 on weighty short backed chairs. Wood plank horizontal bar back wall holds a stainless steel box row of 16 with nitrogen bookends on center. Booze, wine, & glassware countered to both sides and more booze shelved above around the tap box running the length on mirrored back panelings and inlayed lighting for the cool bottle glow effect. Digital pour boards up above list beer, style, origin, & ABV, and shows glass type, serving size, pricing, and on the end, each displays a keg with various degrees of fullness. A pair of flats to each side; football, football, football, & soccer. 1 & 2L growlers alternating atop amidst pumpkinry & harvest play; it being the season, and corn stalks on the ends upright. Glassware below the bar shelved and coolers on the ends with bottles & cans. A single handpump on the bar up front. Vertical wood plank overhang tracing the bar with drop glass cone lamps suspended from old tap handles lining the inside angled.

Décor is mish mosh. Light colored painted ceiling with ductwork and more suction lighting down the center of the room. Slab concrete floorings with bolted wood beams intermingled. White subway tile wall opposite the bar over a 6 seat bar counter with a framed horizontal mirror.

To the rear, brick wall space and a horizontal & vertical plank wall. More brick play with painted pieces above; vertical mirrors on one wall, pairs of flats on the other two, and faux barrel ends with blackboarded somethings; twitter & instgram. Drop ‘war of the worlds’ suction cup lamps and a few single filament dangle bulbings. A dozen or so hightop tables there on square stool seating.

And a half dozen tables in a small space forward the bar to the accordion vertical windowings over 71st. Something goblinlike with a chalice displayed on the front wall, and ‘featured’ and ‘pairings’ boards. Lighting rack with more single filament bulbs overhead.

16 taps, at least one of them annoyingly local, not sure about the other or the other other either (SingleCut John Michael Dark Lyric Lager, Queens Brewery Queens Lager, Long Ireland ESB), regional (Ithaca Flower Power, Allagash Dubbel & Tripel), out west some (Left Hand Stranger & Milk Stout, Oskar Blues Ten Fidy, Breckenridge Agave Wheat), way out west (Elysian Night Owl), imported (Evil Twin Falco IPA, Ayinger Celebrator, Rodenbach Grand Cru, Liefmans Fruitesse), and something something cider (Ace Apple Cider). And Flying Dog The Fear on cask. I was going to take in an Ithaca Flower Power ‘cause, yeah, well, you know, but they asked if I’d had the Evil Twin Falco IPA and then doled out samples side by side. Opted, still for the Flower Power, and then another, and then a Falco.

Food; I had been toying with the pickled pepper wings but a bacon cheddar burger happened. Angus burger, medium rare (I’m going more moo these days), good house bacon, on a brioche of fresh, and served with really good goddamn fries.

Oh yeah, so I’m at the far end of the bar near the serving station, and one of the servers comes up to pick up a bottle and mutters “It’s the wrong one”.
I say, “What is it?”
(She shows it. It’s Oud Beersel Oude Kriek).
“What should it have been?”
“Celia Gluten Free”, she says, clearly unaware of how very unlike each other those 2 beers are, and calls over the ‘tender who makes the fix but leaves the Beersel bottle on the bar. It sat there a while (I think it winked at me). Finally, one of the other bar guys comes by and picks it up, gives it a lookin’ over, and cracks it open, looking for glasses with which to pour it out to sample. I say “Really? You’re just cracking Oud Beersel like that?” For which I earned myself a glassful, and thank you.

Extensive whiskey collection and 20 bottled beer selections, mostly American craft beer, and Oud Beersel Oude Kriek is not one of them. A bit heavy on the sports bar side well offset by the tunes, which were excellent; I caught a good deal of Dylan and I’m pretty sure I just heard a Jorma song. Hey, Olvisholt Lava just came up, I was offered a sample, I accepted, as not to be rude or left thirsty. Yummy burger, good beer, friendly folks. Oh, Queens…

 

Sixteen rotating taps. Cask engine. Over twenty bottles plus some large format they refer to as "featured bottles". The draft rotation is pretty awesome and what has made me a regular here. Always some nice session beers but some hard-to-find, more exotic craft beers that can be hard to find even in Brooklyn and Astoria. A real treasure for a beer nerd in Queens.