I will be in New York (both hotels are in Manhattan) between 25.08-12.09 and would like to ask some tips:
What are the best bottle shops?
Any other (non obvious) tips about beer places?
Any tips for good interesting food? (reasonably priced, I don’t like fine dining and fancy wanky stuff)
Where I can find the best American style beef? (again, not interested in the fancy stuff)
Any tips to find good Mexican (or other interesting regional) food?
Also interested in tips about street food.
It was mentioned in the other topic that some Mexican states are easy to find in NYC, any tips where to find them? Also any other tips about regions/countries I’m missing?
Any beer events happening?
Any bar quizzes happening in the beery places? Would love to visit a quiz in NYC.
I would also love to meet up with some of the local rb guys, this can happen between 31.08-12.09 (I’m flying back on 06.09 evening, but some morning drinking could be done ).
PS: I’m not planning to bring Estonian beers as the luggage would cost 70+$, but if there is interest I can possibly pick up something from Tallinn Airport and put in the hand luggage.
Unfortunately, I moved to Philadelphia recently, but can still provide a good bit of beer advice.
Bottle Shops: In Manhattan, I think City Beer is a very good choice. In Brooklyn, Beer Witch is probably the best (they also occasionally have Mexican craft beer, so your region ticks may be satisfied here.) Covenhoven in Crown Heights is also a solid choice. Brouwerij Lane in Greenpoint is good but expensive.
Beer Tips: most breweries do not serve food, so that you can bring your own. They are also clustered, so you can get to a bunch by walking, but I am assuming that you have already looked them up on a map. Other Half Domino lets you do can pours, while the original does not.
Country Ticks: for most people, I would have suggested Euro Market in Queens, but it looks like you mastered the Balkans already. Food Bazaar in Sunnyside, Queens is where I scored an Ecuador tick about three years ago and generally has a good selection for foreign macros. The only other country you would reasonably get that you don’t have is Haiti, but I couldn’t tell you which shop has it.
Food: Ugly Baby in Gowanus, Brooklyn is a strong call for really good Thai food. It is also conveniently close to Other Half, Finback, Strong Rope, Queue Beer, Bar Great Harry and Owl Farm. In Manhattan get Spice Symphony for Indo-Chinese food.
Beef: If you mean American-Italian Beef, there is a place called Bobbi’s Italian Beef in Carroll Gardens nearby all the above places. If you are thinking Jewish American Beef just go to Katz’s.
Mexican Food: The best stuff is in Corona, Queens. La Espiga has fantastic carnitas. Closer to the breweries, There is El Reyes, which is a good hole in the wall on 4th Avenue Brooklyn. Generally, most food trucks that you see on thr streets will do good stuff. Birria is all the craze now, so get that at least once.
Other Street Food: NY Dosas in Washington Park is really good. Check on twitter if he is around. Royal Grill Halal Food on 44th and 6th is a strong call too.
I can add a few more recommendations to mansquito’s.
New York does not have any superb bottle shops. Most beer bars will have a few fridges with cans to go, but you won’t find anywhere with a huge selection. Along with mansquito’s suggestions, there are all the Craft + Carry locations (one of which will almost certainly be near you), Milk and Hops, Hops Hill and Beer Run.
The top places list is (as everywhere) a little outdated. The best bars are Tørst, The Grand Delancey, Gold Star Beer Counter and As Is. All of those except for As Is have their menus on Untappd, as will most of the other top places. Probably easiest to check that to find interesting beers.
For food the easiest thing to do is google lists of best places. There are far too many good places for one person to visit, so my knowledge is pretty limited. For cheap eats in Manhattan, there are lots of good options in Chinatown, Xi’an Famous Foods is really good and has several locations, but I would be of more help if you narrowed down cuisune / neighborhood.
I’m not quite sure what you mean by this, but mansquito’s suggestions are probably the best options I know of for those styles. To add more mainstream beef options, if you mean steakhouse, then you’re not going to find anything good and affordable in NYC. If you mean barbecue, then the best place in NYC is Hometown BBQ, but it’s not a great BBQ city.
There is Los Tacos No. 1 if you don’t want to trek out to Queens for good Mexican food. I have also always had good luck with the Mexican food trucks on Wyckoff Ave next to KCBC if you head there. You can also find really good Dominican food in the city relatively easily.
You’re missing San Luis Potosí, which you can get with the Monopolio beers which are pretty standard at sit down Mexican restaurants in the city. Not sure I’ve ever seen them in a store, but have also never looked. I’m not convinced you’ll be able to find any others, as I haven’t. Other countries I think only Haiti and Ecuador would be possible, and certainly not easy. Regionwise, you won’t find any Mississippi or West Virginia beers here, nor any of your missing Canada provinces.
The best thing to do is check the top bars / breweries instagrams a week or so before your visit. Things tend not to be announced that far in advance with the exception of festivals, of which there are none during that time.
A lot of breweries do quizzes. I know Fifth Hammer and LIC both do, and there probably are more.
After the exit of mansquito there is not too much of a RB scene here (I don’t think the two of us really counted as a scene before either), but I will be around 5.09-12.09 I think. Would be happy to meet somewhere for a beer or two, I am very convenient to many of the good breweries.
Even if you didn’t ask for it, if you want authentic NYC pizza you should avoid anything that looks fancy or has the terms Ray’s, Famous, or Original. If it looks nice or fancy pass it up. Hole in the wall pizza is the way to go. If the workers speak poor English, that’s a good sign.
Skip the hot dogs, nuts, or pretzels on the street. Any other food is worth a try, especially halal or middle eastern fare.
I’ll throw out Owl Farm in Brooklyn as a worthwhile bar, especially if you like cider.
I, too, am very interested what you mean by American style beef.
For hype brewery beers I have heard Harlem Hops is great.
Look for Suarez Family beers! Last time I was in NY all their beers were great and you dont get them easily elsewhere. For traditional beer bar Blind Tiger was my favorite.
Look for this link map also! I dont know how updated it is but pretty massive still! 500 places on map. Add “h” to the link because it doesnt work on this site.
This was the answer I was looking for. It just looks like US has this whole culture around beef steak, bbq etc. that other countries don’t have. In Estonia for example the most traditional bbq is pork shashlik in vinegar marinade…
I should add there is a Hometown BBQ in Industry City Brooklyn, which is home of Brooklyn Kura (sake brewery) and the Big Alice Barrel Room. It is also close to Five Boroughs and the Brooklyn Gun Hill location.
That said, still go to Katz’s (it is smoked meat, so I guess Jewish BBQ)…
If you want a second cider friendly bar, Cardiff Giant off the C line in Brooklyn.
Cheap Midtown food:
Real Kung Fu Little Steamed Bun Ramen, two locations.
Soba Noodle Azuma
Best Bagel & Coffee, near Penn Station, best bagels I’ve ever had.
Rudy’s Bar, old school place that offers a free hotdog with every beer.
Almost any place where they don’t speak English & you question how sanitary it is.
Katz or Pastrami Queen for Jewish smoked beef & sides.
Hill Country bbq for fatty smoked beef brisket.
Blue Smoke or Dinosaur bbq for smoked pork or chicken & sides.
Doesn’t get much more American beef than a cheeseburger. I like the classic at JG Mellon but I’m sure there is all sorts of other good ones. Even shake shack if you don’t have in Europe. I’m sure can find list of best burgers in NYC
Are there any other places beside Beer Run Harlem that do small pours of meads? (Beer Run Harlem info comes from their untappd menu, didn’t notice them in the other menus, but there are many verified places in NYC, so I may have missed them).
Are the flights/tasters common? (I noticed that only a couple of places had either flights/small sizes in untappd menu)
Almost all breweries will do flights or small pours (Finback Brooklyn might not depending on the time you go). Also all the best beer bars do too like Grand Delancey, Torst and As Is.
Thanks for recommendations again. Loved NYC, definitely recommend visiting it. Did more than 50 place ratings, and even after that had a bunch of places left that I wanted to visit, but didn’t have time. Harlem Hops being the most notable - didn’t realize that it is closed on Monday and on Tuesday before it was too late. I did manage to visit the Chelsea location, but that was disappointing. Anyways, obviously there is a lot to do in NYC, so it is impossible to visit everything in a short period of time.
That being said, non of the places I visited really impressed me. Of course there were bunch of solid places, but there were no must visit places. It must be also said that some of the places have ridiculous legacy scores in rb. There were several places where rb score was 90+, but in reality they may be 60+ or so places.
It’s always fun to share some beers with ratebeerians and meeting @explosivedog was not an exception. It was nice meeting you and thanks again for the beers. Also thank you @mansquito for a missing state and a rare country tick.
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