Whiskey… and whiskey!  And other corn-based, alcoholic amber-colored liquids are the focus at this spot at 37 West 26th Street.  A bar and some seating and tables for standing in the main area.  Toward the back of the main room is a performance stage and then a small second story level toward the back of the space.  What catches your eye is how the place is just lined with whiskey/scotch/bourbon bottles.  Such liquids from all over the world are available at the Flatiron Room.  A nice space and we hope to bring some out-of-town guests here as it has a definite “only-in-NY” feel.

Located at 19 East 26th Street, SD26 is a wine bar / restaurant located on the northern edge of Madison Square Park.  We’ve visited this spot a few times now.  The spot offers a large lounge/bar area in the front half, along with a more formal dining area at the back, past the long lounge/bar area.  We did not try the food here.  The wine selection was decent, but pricey, even for Manhattan standards.  Still worth a visit.

Taking over the space that was Clo Wine Bar, Center Bar, on the fourth floor of the Time Warner Center, offers an upscale atmosphere and a place to get a drink if you’re waiting for a table at one of Time Warner Center’s many restaurants.  The main drink focus here is cocktails, both their take on classic drinks and some of their original concoctions.  Nearly two dozen cocktails are available.  Also a few bottled beers and wine by the glass.  Food menu consists of small bites.  Good spot if you happen to be in the Time Warner Center for another reason, but it’s not a destination spot for your night out.

Part sausage stand / part mini-Biergarten, Links, at 188 Allen Street, is a good spot to line your belly and have a warm-up beer or three before your night out on the Lower East Side.  A service bar offers four tap beers and wine, various sausages and other Biergarten snacks.  A separate room has a few small-ish communal tables.

The folks behind Jake’s Dilemna, Down the Hatch et al are at it again.  This time, they’ve set up a location at Orchard & Stanton.  If you’ve been to their other locations (and there are many around Manhattan), this one is similar.  A sports bar (we counted 20 television monitors during our visit) offering numerous drink specials depending on the day the day of the week, Hair of the Dog is actually in a good location because the Lower East Side really doesn’t have a place like it.  There aren’t many sports bars south of Houston and not too many bars period that are open during the daylight hours in this nabe.  Like their other locations, Hair of the Dog opens at 11am daily and goes late into the night.  If you’re looking for something a little different next time you’re out in the LES, check out Hair of the Dog.

Note: The following post describes a crawl we did just prior to Hurricane Sandy.

A few good craft beer spots in and very close to Union Square.  On a recent Saturday, we visited three of them.

Heartland Brewery (35 Union Square West).  Say what you want about this now five-location-chain Manhattan spot.  Their beer is still top-notch.  We enjoyed the Red Rooster Ale on this occasion.  Typically, Heartland serves five year-round beers and another two or three seasonals.

Lillie’s (13 E. 17th Street).  The Victorian-themed spot offers nearly 20 tap beers and, on this visit, Lillie’s had a live band playing Irish music.

Wildwood BBQ (225 Park Avenue South).  More restaurant than bar, this BBQ spot offers 12 tap beers and another 30 or so bottled ones.  The bar appetizers were solid as well (try the Jumbalaya!).  Unfortunately, no photos here as our camera had run out of power.

We badly wanted to go to Little Town NYC (118 East 15th Street), but it was too crowded, so we had to end our crawl early.

During our pub crawl around Bushwick, we hit several spots.  Our favorite of the day was the Bodega Wine Bar, located at 24 St. Nicholas Avenue.  Bodega Wine Bar offers a solid selection of wine and beer, in addition to light fare, such as chacuterie, cheese and sandwiches nightly, as well as lunch/brunch starting at 11:30am.  The beer selection includes 12 taps and another two dozen bottled beers.  The selection rotates frequently.  The wine offerings numbered around two dozen (including two wines on tap!).  What we found extraordinary about the wine offerings was that anything available by the glass was also available by the bottle and vice versa.  We can’t remember any other wine bar where that occurred.

For those who don’t live in the immediate area or in nearby Williamsburg, the location is a bit out-of-the-way, but it is well worth the trip to this spot.  We plan to return soon.  Bodega Wine Bar will be the anchor spot for any Bushwick beer bar crawl or wine bar crawl.  Two photos below.

Over the past few years, we’ve read about a few new bar openings in the Bushwick section of Brooklyn, mostly centered around the Jefferson St. L-stop.  On a recent weekend afternoon, it was time for a pub crawl in Bushwick.  Here are some brief comments and a few photos from that day.

Right after Pearl’s, we walked to the other end of the block and hit Bodega Wine Bar.  We thoroughly enjoyed this spot and want to return.  More details on Bodega in a forthcoming post.

Walking north along 9th Avenue in Hell’s Kitchen, we were happily surprised to learn of Alfie’s, a new craft-beer focused gastropub, located on the northeast corner of 53rd Street and 9th Avenue.  We had not learned of Alfie’s prior to walking past it (we were, of course, on our way to a different bar when we passed Alfie’s).  The spot offers 20 tap beers, whose rotation varies from three to six weeks and includes a focus on seasonal beers.  A good number of brews hailed from New York State or other Northeastern locales.  The place was fairly spacious: bar on left and tables for dining on right, along with some high-top tables near the entrance.  We did not sample the food menu, so we look forward to doing that on a return trip.  Alfie’s is definitely a nice addition to the HK craft-beer focused NYC bar crawl.

Taking over from the old Desmond’s location, the Martignetti brothers open up their second location of their classic Brinkley’s.  Located at 131 East 60th (across the street from Bloomingdale’s), Brinkley’s Station offers a similar local food and drink menu as their original Soho location.  On our visit, all the beer and nearly all of the wine was from New York State.  The place is spacious (a three-story tall room with skylights), the staff is friendly and we look forward to returning to try more of the food.  Brinkley’s Station is definitely a spot for the UES craft-beer NYC bar crawl.