In the past couple of months, the craft-beer focused LES NYC bar crawl has been pared down by two spots.  A recent post on eater.com indicated that Stanton Public will turn into an exclusive lounge/nightclub spot called The Elsinore.   Moreover, I’ve passed by White Slab Palace several times of late to see the windows covered in brown paper (usually not a good sign).  A fairly recent post on grubstreet.com confirms the closure.  It’s unfortunate to lose not one, but two solid craft-beer spots in that nabe.  Here’s hoping some new beer bars open in the LES sooner rather than later.

This is an article I came across recently featuring the top beer bars from around the United States.

http://draftmag.com/features/americas-100-best-beer-bars-2012/#northeast

Five NYC beer bars made it on the list: Beer Table, Blind Tiger, Earl’s Beer & Cheese, Rattle N Hum and Spuyten Duyvil.  I’m happy to report that I have visited all five at least once (some dozens of times, I’m thinking of you Blind Tiger…).  I know it’s always difficult when one compiles these “top” lists; I’m surprised that there were some NYC ones that were left off.  Check back next week and I will briefly discuss a few that I would like to see added to this top 100 list.

According to a recent article in the NY Post (located here: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/hizzoner_sauce_pan_n9AdFlKbp5yniOhUprFt0L), New York City’s Health Department proposes to slash the number of establishments in the city that sell alcohol.  The Health Department, as the Post story reports, is short on specifics of how to implement such proposals.

My thoughts:

As readers of this space know, I love going to bars and doing my New York Bar Crawls.  In short, I’d be disappointed to see such a proposal take hold if it were to reduce radically the number of drinking establishments across the five boroughs.  But, the officials were short on specifics.  Before any of us bar hoppers gets upset and starts a campaign against this proposal, let’s wait for the details.  Whatever the proposals, I doubt too many bars, provided they are not breaking any laws nor being a nuisance to their neighbors, will get shutdown as a result of this proposed policy.  Time will tell.  Either way, stay tuned, this new proposal could have some interesting ramifications for NYC nightlife.

Late afternoon on Saturday, 1/14/12, I did a brief Williamsburg NYC bar crawl, which took place right around the Lorimer Street L train stop in Brooklyn.  Lots of solid spots in that vicinity.  This week, I’ll be providing brief descriptions and photos of some of the spots I visited.  Please check this space often in the coming days!

It’s so much easier now to watch an out-of-town team than it used to be.  With the proliferation of sports television packages, numerous NYC bars now cater to fans of another city’s sports teams or a specific out-of-town professional or college team.  One site that I’ve used recently to find out-of-town friendly sports bars is http://barhappy.com/new-york-city, which gives you the ability to filter your bar search by specific sports teams.

With the NFL playoffs about to begin, I’m thinking about sports bars.  Over the next several weekends, sports bars in NYC and around the country will be packed with fans.  Of course, there are numerous sports bars all around the five boroughs and I won’t commence a top-10 list or any reviews today (though an NYC sports bar crawl could be interesting, maybe one for each borough).  Just a question/wonderment.  Prior to the television sports packages and satellite television, what was the sports bar experience like?  Was it just a place for locals to gather once or twice per week and watch the home team (aside from places with close proximity to sports venues)?  Surely, no bar prior to television sports packages and satellite television would have a dozen TVs in the establishment.  Three, maybe four TVs, at the most?  If you can provide any insight or thoughts on this, please do here.  I look forward to hearing from you!

Best wishes for 2012.  I look forward to more NYC pub crawls and bar visits in the new year.  And I will keep this space updated accordingly.

I’m back in NYC after a week of travel around the Northeastern United States.   Unfortunately, I did not partake in any “road trip” pub crawls.  I have, perhaps, one more NYC pub crawl remaining in 2011.  Then, it’s onward into 2012!  I look forward to doing many more NYC bar crawls in the New Year.

I learned Mé Bar closed earlier this year (per a recent article from DNAinfo.com).  Crushing news, it was probably my favorite rooftop bar in Manhattan.  Located atop the La Quinta Inn at 17 West 32^nd street, this rather small, cozy spot offered larger-than-life views of the Empire State Building.  According to the DNAinfo article, Me Bar lost its lease.  I am not aware if another bar will move into the space.  Mé Bar was a signature stop for any rooftop NYC bar crawl.  RIP, Mé Bar, you will be missed.

What are your memories of Mé Bar?  Do you know if another bar will move into the space?  Share your thoughts here.

On a recent Sunday afternoon, I was walking by the former location of Tribeca’s Pig ‘N’ Whistle at 363 Greenwich Street.  A sign in the window read, “Tribeca Tap House coming soon.” (Link to bar’s homepage is here.)  I’m happy to learn that a new bar will be taking over the space.  I don’t know much about Tribeca Tap House.  I hope it’s a quality craft-beer focused bar.  If you know more about it, please feel free to share here.  Once I learn more about the new place, I will blog about it.

A few words on Pig ‘N’ Whistle:  I had good memories of it.  Local neighborhood bar that served the after-work crowd from nearby office buildings and had decent pub grub.  Not quite the semi-upscale look and feel of the Midtown and Midtown East locations.  Likely became a casualty to the changes taking place in the neighborhood.  Not too many places like it remain in Tribeca.  If there were a Tribeca Neighborhood NYC pub crawl, Pig ‘N’ Whistle would have been on it!