10 NYC Beer Bars make USA Top 100

Good to see Top Hops on the list, cool place. Love that neighborhood also.

 

Top Hops is awesome. Rattle & Hum is mediocre at best, though I work in the ESB so the proximity to me is nice. Gingerman is a better craft beer bar. So are both Pony Bars.

That said, I think it's too heavy a NYC list. Only 3 bars in all of the Bay Area? No Hops & Pie from Denver? Fail.

 

Yeah agreed Rattle N Hum shouldn't be on there. 3-4 years ago I didn't see people's love for that place, and these days I really don't.

Also much as I love them (and may even prefer them to their bar counterparts a lot of the time), personally I don't think that stores that also have a bar/drinking area, should qualify for a top beer bar list.

Of course everyone has bars they would like to see on there that weren't mentioned, but there are some obvious choices in Brooklyn that I hope get a look next year.

 

The list is WAY too NYC-centric. A couple of those bars are very average. The three main Waterbury, VT bars are all better beer bars than half of the NYC selections.

And no love for Churchill's out west? Come on.

 

I'm not well versed in MYC bars, but it doesn't seem surprising that 10/100 are in NYC. The population of NYC is probably 10X that of SF. And while the Waterbury bars may all have HT and HFS Edward, not much else is all that special.

 

Pretty nice list...I've been to 9 of the 10 NYC bars (have not been to or heard of Beer Street) and a quick search of the best beer bars I've been to personally in DC, MD, Philly, MA, & Chicago showed they were all on the list, so overall I like it. People will obviously complain about some places being omitted but that's the nature of a top list.

In terms of the NYC bars it would not be my personal top 10 list, but good enough. I find it interesting that half the bars I frequent the most (both Pony Bar's, dba, Mugs Alehouse, occasional Beer Authority) are not on the list. I also find it interesting that sometimes bars are really good and deserving of being on a top list like this but I don't go there all the time, due to locations, prices, etc. I tend to save them almost more like a special treat, and drop in other bars for a random beer or two much more often.

Cool to see The Jeffrey on the list considering it hasn't been opened too long yet...I've really been enjoying that place. Interested to see what they do with Fools Gold when that opens up.

 

Is it wrong to be happy my favorite bar isn't on the list? The less crowded the better.

 

Yeah that's a good point - haha.

Neither of the bars that would take 1st and 2nd spot on my personal list, made it on to this one

 

Also - and I know it may be sacrilegious to say this (I do love the place and it was my local for nearly 5 years), but to me Blind Tiger isn't the NYC craft powerhouse that it used to be. I don't know if it's just because of greater competition (in terms of new bars, and sharing the distribution with them), or because the owner resides and has business interests in VT, but over the last year or two, it just seems to me that the quality of the selection and events has declined. If my b-in-law didn't still live close by, I think I'd rarely go. If new bars continue to open and do well, then I don't know if BT should make the list next year.

 

I can vouch that the first place prize winner Mekong) on THIS list:
http://www.craftbeer.com/news/craft...an-beer-bar-selected-by-craftbeer-com-readers
definitely deserves to be on that list. And has a better (and more affordable) draft list and food than any beer bar I've been to in NYC.

 

Draft Magazine's list of "Best Beer Bars 2014" is certainly a wee bit premature. We are only 9 days into the year.

It almost pains me to chime in on a "best list," but I liked your post rollom so I'll bite.

I know that people feel that this spot has been in decline, but I don't see what's not to like despite that. Cask beer. Great tap takeovers/events. Plenty of choices. Flights. Good showing of imports and locals on tap. Spacious. Good food options. Good location. Friendly service whenever I've been there.

I hear yah, but the waters are getting murkier and murkier. If it pays to make a distinction, I'll offer the suggestion that a "bar" needs to have an actual bar. I don't know if I like or dislike that suggestion. That would mean that Top Hops qualifies and Bierkraft wouldn't. Bierkraft is a better bar substitute than many real bars. Beer Street wouldn't make the cut, but frankly I can't see how they made the cut for Draft Magazine. In a different article, Draft Magazine also referred to Beer Street as "New York's best bottle shop/growler stop" - that doesn't sound like a "bar" to me. Even if we want to realllly stretch things and call Beer Street a bar, is it better at being a bar than say... (see below)

... Owl Farm for example.

 

Someone mentioned the Cannibal in the comments section. No thanks.

 

I personally love RnH but not everyone likes the same scene. These lists are so objective and only the opinion of a few. If anything it just drums up interest and gets people talking. And, drinking.

 

Totally agree - tap list was killer the other day (which is annoying as I'm doing a dry January - actually on this topic, there have been so many good tappings/events/releases in NYC over the last week that it's killing me)

But yeah what does or does not constitute a bar is definitely murky - I guess if I wasn't from NYC, was visiting with friends, and turned up at Bierkraft to get stuck into a major session, it could be a bit of a WTF moment as you take a seat next to a park slope dad wearing a baby bjorn.

Ssssshhh

 

For the first time, I left with two full growlers the other day. Devil was on my shoulder.

... and you realize that he's using the baby bjorn as a growler carrier.

(To your point, does Beer Street even ordinarily have seats? My memory isn't sure.)

 

http://www.prohibitionpig.com/draft/
http://www.waterburyreservoir.com/#!bar
https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=562909127118353&id=107054052703865&stream_ref=10

All FAR, FAR superior to:
http://thejeffreynyc.com/drinks-list/
http://brouwerijlane.com/
http://beerstreetnyc.com/Today-s-Draft-List

And whenever the VT bars have classic gueuze it's like $22/750ml not $35+

But yea, they just have Heady and HF Edward...

 

I'm not as shocked as I should be about that

 

You're actually going to compare pricing between NCY & Waterbury, VT?? I should probably stop now.

From my personal experience, yes, the tap lists in Waterbury were nice, but nothing special. TPT was a much better bar than any of the three.