New bars keep opening and we need to get to them.  So, in that vein, here are a few spots on our radar.  In Manhattan, we still have to visit Hudson Common in the Hudson Hotel.  Over in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, we gather that a new beer bar, Torst, has opened recently.  The buzz has been high about Torst, so we can’t wait to see for ourselves.  Just slightly south and east from Torst in Williamsburg is Roebling Sporting Club.  And, in Long Island City, Queens, we look forward to visiting Opendoor.  As always, we’ll keep you posted on our findings.  Which recently-opened spots do you suggest we visit?

Over the past several days, we’ve had the opportunity to visit several spots, some of the recently-opened variety.  The wine bars include Hell’s Kitchen’s  Wine Escape and  Nolita’s Clos New York.  We also visited East Village’s Wise Men and LES’ Beverly’s and Up Stairs Bar.  We’ll provide more details in forthcoming posts.  In short, we liked Wine Escape, Wise Men and Beverly’s.  The other two were okay, but there are numerous other spots we need to hit before we return to those two.

We hope everyone had a safe and fun St. Patrick’s Day.

Here are a few new bars in Manhattan we’re looking forward to visiting: The new location of Milk & Honey on East 23rd Street, Wine Escape on West 44th Street in Hell’s Kitchen and Wise Men on the Bowery in the East Village.

Here are a few new bars in Brooklyn we’re looking forward to visiting: Torst on Manhattan Avenue in Greenpoint, Pork Slope on Fifth Avenue in Park Slope and Lavender Lake on Carroll Street in Carroll Gardens.

As always, we’ll keep you informed after we visit these and other spots.

Two craft-beer focused spots on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, both on Third Avenue have caught our attention recently: Third Avenue Ale House at 1644 Third Avenue and The District 1679 Third Avenue.  Across the East River, in Astoria, Queens, the Single Cut Brewery’s tasting room is now open.  We gather that the tasting room is open Thursday through Sunday.  After we visit these spots, we will be sure to share our thoughts on them.

We hit several bars that participated in NYC Craft Beer Week, which took place from Friday, February 22 until Sunday, March 3.  In particular, we visited Draught 55 (in Midtown East), Spring Lounge (in NoLita), Guilty Goose (in Chelsea) and Sweet Afton (in Astoria).  Of those four spots, we enjoyed our time at Sweet Afton the most.  The place (same owners as The Wren and Wilfie & Nell’s, to name two other spots) had a small-but-quality craft-beer selection.  Just 10 taps, but a great variety of local and national craft beers.  Spring Lounge hosted a Kelso brewery and Empire brewery tasting event.  We very much enjoy the Kelso IPA and Empire IPA (we are hopheads here at Pub Crawl NYC).  What was your experience with NYC Craft Beer Week?  Please share your thoughts.

Recently, we had a chance to visit Pennsylvania 6 (at 132 West 31st Street in Manhattan’s Chelsea), Dead Rabbit (at 30 Water Street in Manhattan’s Financial District) and LCL Bar (at 212 East 42nd Street in Midtown Manhattan).  All three were good spots; all three had good craft beer selections.  We liked Dead Rabbit the best of the three.  Pennsylvania 6 and LCL were places to drop by if you’re nearby those neighborhoods, but not places to go way out of your way for.

For a piece of very welcomed news, we learned recently that The Paris Cafe will re-0pen sometime later in 2013.  The Paris Cafe is our favorite spot in the South Street Seaport section of Manhattan and was badly damaged during Hurricane Sandy.  The major renovations include moving the bar, which has taken some time.  We are just so happy to know that the Paris will re-open!

Today begins NYC Beer Week!

We were dismayed to learn of the following news story: http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2013/02/17/state-lawmaker-seeks-to-ban-pub-crawls/

We’ve written on this topic before.  We doubt that any actual legislation will be passed that bans pub crawls.  Such a law would be too difficult to enforce.  Either way, our questions are these: Why are the calls for bans on NYC bar crawls growing louder of late? Is it because there are more families living in Manhattan versus a generation or two ago? There have been pub crawls in Manhattan for decades, if not centuries. Why is it becoming a quality of life issue only now?

What are your thoughts on this issue?  We want to hear from you!

The long weekend is upon us!  We’ll be sticking around town and hope to get some NYC bar hopping completed before Monday night rolls around.  A few spots on our radar around Manhattan: Pennsylvania 6 at 132 West 31st Street, The Headless Horseman at 119 East 15th Street and Hudson Common at 356 West 58th Street.  The Hudson Common is supposedly a new beer hall within the Hudson Hotel, which seems to be re-creating its bar themes every few years.