Monthly Archives: April 2013

A review of Red Frog on Manhattan's Upper West Side

Located at 2058 Broadway (between 70th and 71st Streets), Red Frog is the third wine bar location of the owners of Chelsea’s The Drunken Horse and Hell’s Kitchen’s Wine Escape.  Small cozy spot offers about a dozen wines by the glass as well as some Eastern Mediterranean tapas (try the Lamachune!).  Friendly staff too.  In all, a great addition to the Upper West Side NYC wine bar crawl.

New NYC bars on our radar

In Manhattan, we’re looking forward to visiting the cocktail bar, Attaboy on the LES.  Attaboy’s location, 134 Eldridge Street, is the original location of Milk & Honey, the bar that started the speakeasy/artisnal cocktail craze back in the early aughts.  Attaboy apparently is also a cocktail spot, but no reservations required.  Over in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, we recently learned of Isle of Skye, which is a Scotch bar.  While we are not big scotch fans here at Pub Crawl NYC, the bar also has a large selection of Scottish beers, which we expect will keep us occupied for sometime.  Perhaps an addition to the Williamsburg craft-beer focused NYC bar crawl.  Lastly, in Astoria, Queens, we still need to visit the Singlecut Beersmith’s brewery for some tastings.  As always, we’ll keep you informed of our findings on these and other spots.

A review of Tir Na Nog, West 39th Street in Manhattan's Hell's Kitchen

Located at 315 West 39th Street, Tir Na Nog is a bigger, though younger, sibling of the location on Eighth Avenue near Madison Square Garden.  Tir Na Nog 39th Street has to be one of the biggest bars (size-wise) in Hell’s Kitchen.  The place has two spacious bars and numerous seating/dining areas.  We couldn’t count all the TVs in the place.  Tir Na Nog 39th Street definitely represents the amelioration of the immediate vicinity of the area south of the Port Authority along 8th Avenue.  The bar is worth a visit if you’re nearby.

A review of Draught 55 in Manhattan's Midtown East

Located at 245 E. 55th Street in Midtown East (or is it Sutton Place?), Draught 55 picks up in the location formerly known at Blackstone’s (and, before that, Jimmy Walker’s).  Layout is practically identical to its previous incarnations: spacious bar area on the right side of the spot, a slightly elevated dining area takes up the rest of the place (this was where the pool tables were for Jimmy Walker’s).  A separate bar area in the very back of the space, beyond the bathrooms and kitchen.  The draught beer offerings number around two dozen, nearly all quality craft-beer. The bottled beer selection is solid too.  The food is somewhat standard bar/pub fare.  Midtown East/ Sutton Place needs more craft-beer focused spot like this and maybe one day, the nabe will have its very own craft-beer focused NYC bar crawl.

A review of Manhattan's Rogue & Canon

Located at 128 West Houston Street (in the old XR Bar space), Rogue & Canon is a new gastropub for the West Houston Street corridor that serves as the border between Greenwich Village and Soho.  Sometimes when we go NYC bar crawling, we attempt to decide whether or not the visited spot “counts” as a bar (it’s an age old debate that will rage, seemingly, forever).  Well, we’re gonna count Rogue & Canon as a bar (and not a restaurant), but it’s just about as borderline as ever.  About half the space is taken up by tables with place settings (which makes the place lean toward “restaurant” distinction).  But, during our visit, we noticed that even the patrons seated at those tables were mostly drinking and not eating.  So, that’s what tipped this spot toward being a bar.  Overall, pleasant staff, eight quality tap beers.  Creative cocktails with fascinating names (‘Russian Firing Squad’ and ‘Midnight Train to Georgia’).  The food was definitely in that gastropub-like classification (we had the fish and chips).  Rogue & Canon is worth a visit next time you’re hanging out in Greenwich Village or Soho.