Beer tips for my first time in NYC

Firestone is readily available on tap and to go all over the place in Manhattan, including supermarkets. There's usually a good handful of crat bars with Hill Farmstead on tap at any given time, but none (that I know of) will pour a growler of it, and cans/bottles don't make it down here. Trillium never makes it here in any form, and I believe the same goes for Bruery but I could be wrong.

Grimm is a very good and very versatile local brewer who you'll be able to find at most craft bottle shops. It's also worth going to Interboro and LIC Beer Project, along with OH.

I'd also recommend using BeerMenus. A bunch of the good craft bars here update their menu relatively regularly, so just plug in your address/zip code, see who updated recently, and check out what they have.

 

Bring a box of Cantillon and I'm quite sure you will have no problem trading for whatever you are looking for

I noticed you said you would visit lower Manhattan Where are you staying?

 

Little chance of finding BCBS variants around town at this point, maybe an overpriced bottle of the barleywine is still hanging around. Regular should be easy to come by.

 

Eat at The Spotted Pig or Momofuku Noodle Bar, or hit up some long time establishments of Katz Deli for pastrami and/or Russ & Daughters Cafe for bagels and lox and traditional Jewish baked goods (those are all strictly food recommendations, although spotted pig pours an amazingly smooth nitro old speckled hen)! Or go to Crif Dogs for a hot dog joint and try to get in to Please Don’t Tell (“secret” speakeasy) through their phone booth.

If you can, find some Sloop Brewing, Suarez Family, or Hudson Valley Brewing beers to try and maybe even take back with you. All make amazing products and are from just north of the city in beautiful farm country.

Take notice, these recommendations are from someone who loves to travel based on food/beer and culinary experiences, I’m a southerner from NC, definitely not a NYC local, but none of these would let you down! Lastly, Williamsburg and Greenpoint in Brooklyn have enough legit beer spots that you could spend a whole day just in that area. Have a great trip!

 

OP - any chance of narrowing things down a little? Where are you staying? And also what dates? NYC beer week starts today and runs for 10 days. So lots of cool events happening and even more good beer floating around. And will you have kids with you? And on the food front are you looking to fork out for a couple of pricier meals while you’re here, or generally looking to keep it casual?

Edit - ignore the date question. Just saw you mentioned next week

 

Fuck I can’t read. See you mentioned not too expensive restaurants too haha.

 

OP, Totto Ramen is fantastic and right around the corner from As Is, probably the best beer bar in the city at the moment.

LES and East Village have lots of good food options, including Tim Ho Wan, which is right near Milk and Hops Astor Place and not far from Proletariat, Good Beer and Augurs Well (all good beer spots). If you go to Augurs Well and Proletariat (they're on the same street), you'll also find Hanoi House, which is mind-blowing good food and a real experience. They also have had Perrin's No Rules Vietnamese Porter there to add the fun if you can stomach the $40 price tag. Crif Dog and Please Don't Tell (mentioned above) are also on this same block.

If you do hit Katz's or Russ and Daughters (solid recommendations), you have Fool's Gold close by for beer and then the wealth of food options not far from there in the LES. Barrio Chino is an excellent choice for Mexican food and Doughnut Plant is a good spot to satisfy your sweet tooth if you have one. Mission Chinese is nearby for a splurge meal.

In BK, close to Other Half you have a ramen spot, a New Orleans-influenced sandwich spot and Court Street Grocers for some creative sandwiches. I am always a proponent of, once in that area, continuing down to Red Hook for Hometown BBQ.

If you visit Torst, which has some good light food, there's a good spot called Baoburg right across the street.

Plenty more options such as going to Roberta's and then Interboro, but I think I've probably already gone into overkill.

 

If you go to a bottle shop, be on the lookout for IPAs from Foreign Objects, Root and Branch, Interboro, Grimm and Greenpoint. All of these can be found at bottle shops from time to time and are definitely worth a try, the NYC beer scene is at an all time peak rn

 

Dayum. Not a bad list from a guy from New Mexico.