As Is

 

@slander says it better than I can below. It’s a hip spot, with an impressive tap list and some decent grub that really hit the spot. I woudn’t mind visiting again someday.

 

Drinks with Hell’s Kitchen Ubu were well overdue, true. Shoulda got an earlier jump ‘cause Sunday parking is an absolute shit show and what’s with these ‘Police parking only’ signs. Fuck that. The police should park in all the places I can't legally and leave the real spots open, because, you know, they can. And we just beat the rain and wind, as is happening, wait for it, now, so that’s something. Dark & stormy corner, 10th and 50th…

‘L’ bar on the inside wall with an oak rail, and I don’t know, like a cold pressed steel (or something as such) panel top & base that rounds to a foot rest piece. Seating for a dozen on cushy stools. I am seated there as it’s closest to drink.

Looooooong stainless box on the bar back with mix & match nondescript wooden knob and stick handles; 10 on each end and 6 shortys in between (dealing house made cocktails, or so I am told) fronting something cupboardy with slight boozings. Sprawling set of horizontal boards atop 7 long and 3 high, each listing a single tap selection (beer, style, origin, ABV, & $$) in plastic letters. Stemmed glassware dangling from the underside running the length. Glass front lit boxes mounted on both ends with boozings. More glassware shelved below the bar and cooler space to both sides. Dead soldier guest bottles shelved, and guest cans along the ceiling sill subway tiled up.

Neat vintaged up brick walls with cuts and rounded fill ins. Black & white & gray honeycomb floor tilings around the bar (that shit’s sharp!) and diagonal wood slat floorings, otherwise. A mostly thin slat wood ceiling (with a strange mirror panel just off the door). ‘Fresh beer’ neon on the far wall and a ‘live by the drink, die by the drink’ print over there. Drop ½ ball glass lamps tracing the bar and strung white baby Xmas lighting lining the tap boards and the framed box tracing the stairway rail holding plants, bottles, jars of stuff, and potted cacti.

Hightops to both sides of the door seating each stooled. Some bar counter seating in the large front windows over 10th Ave, a few white Formica bar counter juts adjacent to the bar, and 5 square tables on shared benchings in the back corner.

20 taps, nearly half of them are New York City/State offerings (Other Half/Kent Falls Crazy Talk, Finback Cell & Chromoscope, Transmitter NY4 – New York Weisse, and 5 goodies from up the road some Suerez; Round the Bend, Pleasner, While, East Camp, & Ms. Frank). The remainder are a mix of regional craft (Highway Manor Fuzzy Sayjohn, Free Will Lord Business, Jacks Abby Kiwi Rising, Hill Farmstead/Tired Hands Karma Emulsion), craft afar (Prairie Christmas Bomb!, Stone Enjoy By, Cigar City Vanilla Maduro), and imports (Mikkeller Hoppy Lovin’ Christmas, Alvinne Cuvee Freddy, Omnipollo Mackaper, Baladin Noel). It’s quite the list.

Honestly, I could’ve drank Suarez drafts all damn day (and maybe sprinkled in some other things beer or there) but mixed it up some instead. Started with the Suerez Round the Bend, then the Other Half/Kent Falls Crazy Talk, & finally the Hill Farmstead/Tired Hands Karma Emulsion.

Oh, fuck. They’ve got a bottle list. Nicely curated with 146 entries. The list, while annoyingly alphabetical, does hold some goods (multiple offerings from Cascade, Crooked Stave, Fantome, Grimm…) $48 for a Bon Chien 375 kind of hurts. Some of this is pricey, but you know what’s not? Cuvee De Ranke 750 for $30. I could be down with that. Lots of Shelton & B United import fun to be had.

They do food, I would have liked to have eaten (oh yes, crispy chicken sandwich, you will be mine). It’s a chill place. Returned here with bossman (senor establish-a-mente) to pre-game the pre-game for our holiday party. We should have just stayed here. The tunes are my 60s & 70s soundtrack (Dead, Zeppelin, Traffic, Bowie, The Band, Hendrix, Beatles). Me Likey.

Turn around the corner, things got real quiet, real fast.
I walked into a Tenth Avenue freeze-out.

 

 

Solid beer bar in midtown Manhattan. Often a great selection of around 18 beers on tap including Hill Farmstead and some other greats. Bar tenders were well versed in beer.

 

I hit this place up on a little pre-concert NYC pub crawl, in which I visited some places I hadn't been to yet. Definitely my favorite of the batch, relative newcomer As Is is definitely a place that craft beer lovers will want to check out. Nice layout, tidy, simple, comfortable, friendly staff. Very impressive and no-nonsense taplist, with items from Other Half, Mikkeller, Bruery, Hill Farmstead, and so on. Option for small pours, which is nice. The only real problem I had, was the prices, which are really too high, even for New York, teetering on unreasonable, but not quite at the I'm-not-coming-back threshold. I did not sample the food menu, as it was pretty small and didn't really spark my interest. So yeah, it's definitely a cool bar with a great selection, but the prices would keep me from spending too much time there.

 

Modern vibe, high ceilings, full windows in front, exposed brick walls, some nice bottles/cans along the back for decoration. Dim lighting, plank wood floors, effortlessly cool and relaxed vibe. Woozy slo-mo house oozed from the speakers, it sounded like something from the NYC label L.I.E.S.

Behind the bar, an ever rotating wall of draft beers, each one gets it's own signboard with custom letters, listing off the prices and abv. Selection wise, there was a great showcase of Hudson Valley stuff, and a bunch of hazy IPA's. The sign out front said "come on down to juice town". Noticed Half Acre and Off Color from Chicago, plus many more.

Super cool staff, very accomodating and friendly. Very nice dudes. Their beermenus list is updated frequently. Didn't try the food, but the menu looked good, as did the plates coming out of the kitchen. Mini-snifter tasters were a great way to try a few things, and full pours came in teku glasses, not personally a fan but YMMV.

Overall, the relaxing vibe and impeccable selection were a highlight of a recent NYC visit. Would make a point to go back on a return trip, everything here is top tier.

Popped in with a buddy a couple weeks back. Kind of off the beaten path for location but really neat place. Had cans of SoS which is awesome. Neat place, would come back again.

A must for anyone visiting NYC. locating off of hells kitchen on 10th ave the vibe is unlike your typical beer bar in ny. great selection with a great crowd. you can easily enjoy your new found beer or strike up a conversation with a fellow beer advocate.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Was there on on Friday afternoon. Not to busy. Great selection, got to try some Other Half and other local brews.

A gem of a beer bar in Hell’s Kitchen, with one of the best menus around. Rare stuff from Prairie, Other Half, Almanac, Mikkeller… served in cool wine glasses in full or half pours.

Great atmosphere as well, no TV’s and no bullshit, just good beer (and not usually crowded with Manhattan douchebags)

Their food menu is limited but very tasty, and their beer menu is updated on BeerMenus.com. Expensive but worth every penny.

 

 

This new bar is a standout in a location (Hell's Kitchen) that could use a few more options like it. Really cool vibe inside with a tap list that was top notch. They had Schlenkerla Helles, which I have never seen on-tap before. I could have sat there and drank glass after glass of that, but decided to check out the Grimm/Victory Vis-A-Vis. Almost every beer of the 20 on-tap were available as 25 or 40 cL pours. The beers are served carefully and skillfully in their standard stemware. It would be nice to see appropriate glassware for different styles, but the stemmed glasses they use are quality. The food was quite good. We had a pretzel with Serrano ham and a charcuterie plate. Overall, this is a new favorite of mine. A must visit if you're going to a show at Terminal 5.

A very cool addition to the Hell's Kitchen bar lineup. Very simple, open setup with a long bar and some hightops in front, tables in the back. Loud but not as loud as, say, the Pony Bar. Bright but not too bright, though it would be nice if they install some shades on the front window to block some late afternoon sun. Not too crowded, which I loved though the owners may not.

Tap list is extraordinary with locals from Grimm, Other Half and more, along with Hill Farmstead, Mikkeller and other craft favorites. Cocktail list is nice too if you're into that. Food selection is limited but all good, mostly snacks and a couple of sandwiches. Rather pricey even grading on the Manhattan curve.

But anyplace I can drink HF Double Galaxy for three days running and comfortably hang with my wife and friends is way up on my list.

HV

Very simple beer bar with high quality offerings. 20 taps or so. Cool vintage felt board beer menu above a very simple bar. The night I was there. They must have had a Jack's Abby event, as there were lots of JA options available. Small pours available for many selections, great for tasting. A must-stop if you're in Hell's Kitchen.