New York Marathon - NY Suggestions

i went down the red line to blind tiger after finishing and drank an other half interboro barrier and industrial arts, then over to hearth for the best gnocci in the world. it was a good race day i would suggest it

 

A lot can change in that amount of time, but right now you can easily get quality cans off the shelf in the Columbus Circle area (Greenpoint, Foreign Objects, etc.), and there's a top notch beer bar in walking distance (As Is).

You can also access numerous subway lines easily, for getting wherever else you'd like to go, so it's not a bad tradeoff to stay up there.

 

I would suggest Williamsburg/Greenpoint as the area to stay in terms of easy access to breweries. Everyone hates on the G line, but assuming it's running full blast that weekend, you can use it to get to OH/Sixpoint/Folksbier at the Smith/9th stop, Greenpoint, Torst, Keg & Lantern, and Threes' Greenpoint location in the middle, and then ride it all the way to Court Square and walk up to LICBP, Fifth Hammer, Transmitter. You can switch at the Metropolitan G stop and get on the L and ride a couple stops to Interboro/KCBC/hopefully by then Grimm. If you really only want to be walking between breweries, stay in (1) Park Slope or Gowanus to walk between Threes/OH/Sixpoint/Folksbier, (2) Long Island City to walk between LICBP, Fifth Hammer, Transmitter, etc., or less so (3) East Williamsburg to walk between Interoboro, KCBC, possibly Grimm, The Well, and Roberta's.

And if you follow @augiecarton's advice, Hearth is a couple blocks south of the L, which will take you into Williamsburg from Manhattan.

 

Just something to point out - although beer is life (only slightly tongue in cheek), if you’re planning on using one of the official transportation options on race day, I would definitely factor that into your where-to-stay decision. It’s an early start regardless. Layering that with spending 30-45 mins to get to the right part of manhattan for the bus etc, can make it even earlier. If you’re doing your own thing on that front then ignore me

 

In that case I reckon you want to aim to stay north of 23rd street and south of Central Park (59th street), and west of 5th Avenue. Will mean you're fairly close to the NY Public Library pick up point (42nd and 5th Avenue), and not too far from the end of the race, and still close to one of the better midtown beer bar options (Gingerman on 36th and 5th; Haymaker on 29th and 8th; As Is on 50th and 10th; Beer Culture on 45th and 8th), and decent access to the 1/2/3, A/C/E and B/D/F/M trains (which will give you easy access to the West Village and Park Slope/Carroll Gardens (Other Half) options detailed above, plus others)

I live in Park Slope - so can give you more detailed options in the general South Brooklyn area if you decide to make that part of your trip. Good luck in the race - post your bib number closer to the time so we can cheer you on. I did NYC a few years ago - incredible experience!

 

Though don’t stay in or too close to Times Square

 

Also, be sure to check in with us again closer to the date about new breweries/bars, events that weekend, beers to seek, etc. I imagine there’s a few of us who wouldn’t mind celebrating the race with you

 

Nearly the entirety of the flower district / fur district has been turned into hotels---tons of options between Broadway and 8th Ave in the high 20s / low 30s, and there are at least three more under construction.

 

True that! I work in the area and I work at a hospitality focused real estate brokerage. I endorse that message.

 

As an upper west side resident who has done the marathon this may be helpful:
The marathon gets you finishing onto the west side on Central park west; there are 3 easy subway stations right there (B-C line, you are less than a 5 minute walk to one of them). These subway lines run every 5 minutes or so, and a downtown train there would take you to Midtown West (10-15 minutes); Chelsea (15 minutes), West Village (20-25 minutes) and either Tribeca/Lower East side 30-35 minutes. Brooklyn may be 40+ minutes. On a weekend you would likely get a seat, especially if you were collapsing!
So you can pick a neighborhood based on the above times depending on how much neighborhood matters to you.

If you want to be mellow and not travel post-race, the Upper West side is not completely barren, and given you may just want a few beers and good food, you can easily make it work. Beer places that often have a few very good beers on tap and many good beers would be:
Jacob's Pickles (and you can basically get enough food calories there to need to do another marathon), George Keeley, Dive Bar, Broadway Dive, and Beer Shop NYC. Except for Broadway Dive, all are easy walks.
There are tons of good-enough restaurants as well, closer to the time you can ask.

Hope this helps, feel free to PM me if you end up on the UWS

 

I ran seven NYC marathons in the 1990's and remember being in no shape to go out drinking beer after any of them.

PS if you're prioritizing Mikkeler over Other Half (and Grimm), you're doing to wrong.

 

How much time do you have for drinking? Close to Flatiron is not much in terms of beer. Stretching your legs with a brisk walk to prep for the run, you can easily get to Haymaker, Rattle N Hum East, and Ginger Man, all beer bars (and in my order of preference, I suppose. Haymaker wins by a fair margin). East Village has Proletariat (one of the best beer bars in the city), Good Beer (great beer shop) and Augurs Well (which tends to get expensive even for NYC standards, but often has a damn fine taplist). Further south in the Lower East Side/Bowery area you have Fools Gold (which would be good for any sports game you may want to catch that Saturday, or should you be in a skeeball mood) and One Mile House, two more good beer bars (I spend more of my time at OMH than any other beer bar; @jrnyc and I were there just last week for a Firestone Walker event).

For breweries, if you're going to Mikkeller, it would be worth your while to make a stop on the way there/back at LIC Beer Project. You can also do a trifecta in East Williamsburg of Grimm, Interboro, and KCBC. If you head to Other Half, Threes is nearby and Folksbier Brauerei makes some good beer as well. My money would be with Grimm/Interboro/KCBC, but it depends on what you want from the experience -- those three don't make it very far in distro, and Grimm/KCBC make quite a variety of beers while Interboro also distills. Other Half would be a check off the hype train, but you best be in the mood for a ton of NE(D/T)IPAs and imperial stouts (and maybe a fruited kettle sour of some sort). Finback is definitely a good choice and their beer has been getting better of late, but is a pain to get to on public transportation - over an hour from Flatiron.

For coffee, I'm a fan of Grumpy coffee, roasted in Brooklyn. There's a cafe on 20th between 7th and 8th Aves, so not a far walk. Ninth Street Espresso is also really good, with a location at Threes and also on 29th right near Haymaker. My fiancée works on 27th right near Patent Coffee (on 27th just east of 6th) and says it's quite delicious, and they roast their own beans. She says there's also a place called Birch that's on 27th and Madison that's quite good.

I'm no better than Yelp for food recommendations, so hopefully others chime in on the gnocchi. I would also normally be game for a meet up, but my future father in law will be in town that weekend, and I'm not quite sure what the plans are. In sum, keep me updated if plans are made to meet up with other BAs.

 

I work in the Flatiron/NoMad area and endorse this message

 

Good luck on the race! I ran it in 2003, it was an amazing experience. I did hobble around for a week after that. I did'nt drink craft back then, but it would have been awesome to recover in a brewery or on the couch with awesome local IPAs!