Has anyone from New England ever been to Half Time Beverage in New York? If so, what were you impressions? I visited this bottle shop last week and I was extremely impressed by the quantity and variety of beer selections they had. I would love to see more places like this in the New England area.
If you're implying that New York is not part of New England, I am aware...haha. I was simply asking if anyone from New England has been to this store in New York.
I go to school 10 minutes up the road at The Culinary Institute of America. It's my go to spot to get a quick growler. They always get some interesting limited bottles (Framboos, Cantillon, Allagash wilds, and more), and they sit for weeks. A case of Stille Nacht Reserva sat on the shelves for a good 6 months. Not the best beer scene out there at least compared to here in New England. However I've noticed it is a bit pricy. It would be interesting to see a store like that around here. Not sure that we really need it however. The one thing we do need is a reform of our archaic growler laws so we can get on NY's level.
I'd say generally that's off. There's a pretty good beer scene in the area with The Craftsman (top quality beer bar), Half Time, Port Chester Beer Distro, LazyBoys, Captain Lawrence, The Oath (run by The Craftsman owners), Growlers Bistro, DeCiccos Armonk/Ardsley, Polpettina and more. HT is definitely pricey. You picked a couple examples of things sitting on the shelf, but 95% of the great bottles they get fly off the shelves within a couple days.
I went there while in New York last weekend. It was good. The one thing I fear with shops like that, is they can turn into a bottle graveyard. I picked up a bunch of bottles there and some were malt bombs (No dates on them, but wanted to try those specific beers while in NY . If you're looking for a big selection Mass has a few stores you're probably aware of. Other than Red stones, Julios, try Burlington Wine & Spirits sometime. They must have 20 coolers full , and many shelves full of beer. Pretty good selection.
I'm curious what it is that this beer store has that you think stores in New England lack? The one obvious thing I agree stores, at least in Massachusetts, need is the ability to fill growlers. Otherwise, if we are just talking about beer stores with a great selection, I think we are doing just fine. Obviously there are some brewers that you can get in New York that I would really love to see distributed in Massachusetts (Bells, Westbrook and Elysian come to mind, and I see Cigar City is in NY now) but while I wait for those guys to come around I will just sit here, quietly sipping my Trillium.
This, I'm a regular because HT is along my commute but their management too often neglects the hoppy stuff that doesnt sell very quickly. They leave stuff unrefrigerated and past its sell by date far too often I'm guessing that OP was referring more to the sheer size of the place. We're talking about a 20,000+ square foot beer store with 22 taps for growler fills.
When I was just starting to get into craft beer, I loved Halftime. You could get a mix-six of pretty solid beer every day for a month without repeating a beer which was awesome when getting into it. Now that I'm a bit more experienced I'm less of a fan. As mentioned they are a bit pricy and you have to be careful of dates. Also, most of their stuff is pretty available elsewhere, you have to look behind the counter for the rarer beers.
Great selection of shelf beer but most of it is readily available elsewhere. Also, as others have mentioned, it's on the expensive side (especially if you're buying singles/mixed sixers) and I wouldn't buy any IPAs there that weren't dated. Plenty of those bottles have been sitting there for quite a while. Also, from my experience, the staff isn't very knowledgeable. For example, one time I overheard a staff member tell a customer that they sold a great Oatmeal Stout made by "Yeti Brewing".
