NYC recommendations

Yeah I’m pretty much on your page. Great list. However my first interaction with a bartender was when I pointed at the draft menu board and asked for “the Suarez”. In her defense I had missed the fact there were two Suarez beers on tap; thought there was just the one. Obviously if I’d seen multiple I would have specified which one. But still she decided to lecture me on the fact that they’d had a recent Suarez tap takeover, and that along with the draft options they had three or four cans/bottles from them, and that generally speaking “this is the sort of place where you need to specify the beer not just the brewery”. I got served by the three other bartenders over the course of the evening and they were all actually super nice/helpful

But yeah I didn’t realize it was part of the retail/commercial component of 550 Vanderbilt, which sort of automatically kills character.

Like you I would go back but only for a specific reason. As with Bierwax, for me personally it’s hard for this and other local places to contend when Gold Star is that close.

 

No... If you are visiting from out of town, Finback is such a pain in the ass... It ain't the city out there, basically you're in Long Island. It's fun on nice day for locals to waste a weekend day out there. Beermenu their beers, threes always has their single cans at good price in their upstairs fridge. Hopefully in the next few months they open up their Brooklyn taproom in OH neighborhood.

Since you're at Metropolitan/Lorimer area I suggest you stick to L places(Grimm, Interboro, Evil twin, KCBC) one day and the G spots another (OH, folksbier, threes).

 

Again I think it’s somewhere you go for the beer list (which has generally been great to stellar since opening). But it’s not somewhere you go for atmosphere or quick/knowledgeable service. If you’re going to be close by anyway though, I would def check it out assuming there’s something there you want to try - their online list is kept pretty up to date

 

And if you go, sit at the bar if you can. Much better service there as opposed to the table service. Seems like they have 2 servers for all the tables, which is 2-3 too few when the place is busy.

 

There is a GREAT German restaurant very close to Finback:

https://www.zumstammtisch.com/

The beer is all ordinary German but the food is fantastic - if you're into German food.

 

I'd argue for adding Finback to that Evil Twin/KCBC run. It's a 10 minute uber from Evil Twin and possibly the best brewery on that list.

It's too close to Evil Twin not to do if you're out that far.