Located in the Hudson Hotel (in the room that used to be Hudson Bar) at 356 West 58^th Street, Hudson Common attempts to make the casual beer hall slightly upscale.  The room is spacious with some communal tables, as well as some smaller lounge-y tables.  A food window is available for walk-up orders and the kitchen texts you when your order is ready (try the boneless buffalo wings!).  For a beer hall, we found the beer selection a bit lacking: no more than eight taps, though there were a few local NY craft beer selections.  Hudson Common is worth checking out if you’re in the nabe.

Located at 58 East 34^th Street, Murray Bar is located just below Cash Bar (same owners).  While Cash Bar is somewhat of a rare find for NYC bars (at least the theme and setting is), Murray Bar is more of an easier-to-find sports bar.  Now, by no means is it like the Mercury Bar/Tonic East feel of other nearby sports bars.  Place is long and narrow with different nooks and crannies throughout the space.  Comfortable spot and friendly staff, but when we return to this building, we’d probably prefer to return upstairs to Cash Bar.

Located at 1644 Third Avenue (at 92^nd Street) in the old Brother Jimmy’s Baitshack location, Third Avenue Ale House is a beer bar for the Upper East Side craft-beer focused NYC bar crawl.  Offering nearly 30 tap beers and more by the bottle, Third Avenue Ale House feels like it’s been around for a while (even though it opened in late 2012).  The food is solid (try the lamb burger!) and the staff is friendly.  Bar area in front, followed by a sizeable seating area up a few steps and past the kitchen/bathrooms.  This is a place we look forward to returning to.

Located at 43 West 26^th Street, Grey Bar is in the same location as the former Gstaad.  Essentially a sports bar (although not one of those super, upscale sports bars), Grey Bar offers numerous TVs and a spacious place to hang out with friends.  For us, though, there just wasn’t anything remarkable about the spot.  Probably not a spot worth going out of your way for.

Located at 2058 Broadway (between 70^th and 71^st 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.