My husband and I, and our friend and his adult son visited New York City yesterday for a trade show at the Jacob Javits Center. After spending five hours looking at air-conditioning, heating and refrigerating displays, we were ready to start exploring some of the City�s pubs.

Before we left for NYC I did a search on Fodor�s and found several bar / pub recommendations. So armed with my notes, we took the subway to 2nd Avenue and Houston Street in the East Village, and walked to d.b.a. (located at 41 East First Avenue, between 2nd & 3rd Streets), an unassuming little neighborhood storefront bar, with an incredible selection of beers and other libations, including many European beers on draught and in bottles.

All four of us enjoy drinking a good hefeweizen, so we ordered four 0.5 liters of Franziskaner on draught, and were happy to see it served up in the proper glass. We took a seat in the enclosed garden area in the back of the bar, where the house kitty, �Maggie�, was sleeping on a table under one of the ceiling heaters. We enjoyed being able to finally sit down and relax with a good beer after our long day of walking. We struck up a conversation with a gentleman at a table near ours, who now lives in Brooklyn but is originally from the same area where we all live in Pennsylvania! In addition, his sister has done some acting with the theatre ensemble that we are involved with! It was one of those moments when you realize how large the universe is, and yet, at the same time, how small it is.

After we finished our beers, we walked to Second Avenue, and up a few blocks to 7th Street, where we found Burp Castle (41 E. 7th St.), a little hole-in-the-wall bar decorated with a monastic theme. There are murals on the wall depicting monks in various scenes, who all eerily have the same face. My husband and Jr. ordered Houblan Chauffe on draught, which is a tripel/IPA blend � Sr. & I ordered a Weihenstephaner Hefeweizen, which came in a bottle. The bartender had to place a call, and some guy came up from the basement outside with our bottles of beer in hand. She placed another call and a large tray of Pomme Frittes with several dipping sauces appeared on the bar for us and the 3-4 other patrons who arrived after we got there. Again, we were glad to see our beers served in the proper glasses. We really enjoyed our stop at Burp Castle, and were quite impressed with their selection of European beers, particularly from Belgium.

Our next stop was just a few buildings down the street at 15 East 7th Street, McSorley�s Old Ale House. www.mcsorleysnewyork.com Opened in 1854, McSorley�s serves only two types of ale � a light and a dark. When you order, you get two small mugs of the same beer, instead of one larger mug. We ordered our beer at the bar and found a table towards the back, only to find out that they do have table service available. We all had the light ale, except Jr. who opted for the dark. It was okay beer. We found the ambiance and history of the bar to be the main reason to stop here. Until 1970, women were not allowed in the bar, including the female owner, who voluntarily agreed to stay out of the �working man�s� saloon. The bar is covered with photos, newspaper articles and posters from the last 150 years of history, including the front page of the newspaper the day after Lincoln�s assassination, the saloon�s motto of �Be Good or Be Gone� and the many portraits of the notable people who have imbibed at McSorley�s over the years. We felt we were getting the bum�s rush from the waiter, since he didn�t actually serve us our beers and was probably afraid he would lose out on his share of tips for the table. But that�s okay, because we had one more stop for the night before our three hour drive home. We tipped the waiter anyway on the way out, and started our trek back up 7th Street to Avenue C.

There on the corner is Zum Schneider Restaurant & Biergarten (107 Avenue C) www.zumschneider.com where we went in, found a table, and ordered drinks and dinner. They claim to have 12 German beers on tap, and many different Bavarian specialties. My husband and I had a 0.5 liter glass of Schneider Weisse on draught, an amber colored smooth wheat beer. Sr. ordered a Weihenstephaner on draught, a light hefeweizen, and Jr. had an Aventinus on draught, which is a double bock wheat beer, that is dark and sweet.

We also ordered dinner � Weiner Schnitzel with potato salad and cucumber/dill salad for Jr. & me (too many salads); my husband had the Schweinswürst�l, which is five grilled Nuremburg sausages with mashed potatoes and sauerkraut (sauerkraut not near as good as what we had on our recent trip to Germany); Sr. had the Sausage Platter which included three different Bavarian sausages with mashed potatoes and sauerkraut. One of the sausages was a white sausage, which is very popular in Bavaria, but Sr. found them to be just as bland as we did when we tried them in Munich.

Overall, the dinner was really good, typical Bavarian food, and the beer was delicious just as well. The restaurant is decorated with the blue and white Bavarian pattern, and we were glad to see a portrait of their beloved �Crazy� King Ludwig hanging on the wall by the bar.

We had a great pub crawl and road trip, and would definitely recommend all of the four bars/pubs that we visited. We would gladly return to any of them on our next trip into �the City�, however we still have several other bars we�d like to check out, including Blind Tiger, Peculier Pub, and Ginger Man.

Does anybody care to add to our list?

Peace,
Robyn

Great report Robyn. I completely agree that the beer drinking experience is enhanced by having it served in the appropriate glass.

Great report Robyn. I want to hang around with you guys! LOL

Thanks for your replies. We had a great time exploring this area of NYC - the East Village.

Each time we have an excuse to visit NYC, we try to pick a different area of the city to discover - small sections at a time.

Are there any other pub suggestions for the next visit?

Robyn >-

I'm not much of a beer drinker, Robyn, but here's a good post from chowhound which mentions all the usual suspects including some places in Brooklyn

http://www.chowhound.com/topics/323400

Good report. Thank you.

The Lower East Side and the East Village houses some of the best bars and restaurants from the locals' perpective.

If you are into Belgian beers, Markt in Chelsea and Cafe d'Alsace in the Upper East Side has tons of them and they use appropriate glasses to serve them with.

Waterfront Ale House on 2nd Avenue and 30th Street serves some of the best bar foods in the city, with good beer selection to add.

bill_boy - Thanks for the suggestions. We'll add them to our list.

mclaurie - Thanks for the link to chowhound.com... great site! Our list of pubs to explore in NYC just got quite longer.

Now we'll have to look for an excuse to visit the city....

Robyn >-

I'm glad you enjoyed the mini beer tour.

Brooklyn is home to many fine beer bars, including Spuyten Duyvil, Barcade, the Brazen Head, and Mugs Ale House.

I second bill boy's suggestion of Waterfront Ale House; go for lunch, as the food is quite good. Add 'em all to the list.

The East Village has so many bars that the Community Board has asked NY State to stop issuing liquor licenses in fear that the neighborhood is experiencing the worse aspects of Bourbon Street.
Weekends start on Thirsday after work and end Sunday morning 4 AM. Near us, are seven bars off one intersection.

Some beleive that the commerce is good for the neighborhood, while others believe that the vast number of drinkers are not from the neighborhood and use the streets for something other than walking.

We had a woman friend on lived on the same block as McSorley's and took a vacation day on St. Patrick's and hide in her apartment, rather than face the crowd.

You've gone to such great places I'm crowning you and honorary NYer! Blind Tiger is just eh (big beer selection but rotten crowd), but the Peculiar Pub is great. There's a place in the West Village called Lederhosen that has an excellent selection and great atmosphere. And Mugs is well worth a visit.

The East Village has always been full of bars and (gasp) people from outside the neighborhood.

Actually agreed on Blind Tiger crowd unless you go early. It's too bad, because the owners care about beer.

Sigh...you went to Burp Castle. I have tried THREE times to go to Burp Castle, and they are always closed. And they never answer their phone. So I am thrilled to hear a report - hope to get to NYC again some day to try it!

d.b.a is fantastic, but I still love Ginger Man (only during the day, though, otherwise it gets too crowded).

Here's one of my favorite sites for planning pub crawls in NYC...many with updated draft lists.

http://hbd.org/mbas/beer.html

Aww beanweb. Sorry to put salt in the wound but Burp Castle is great.

beanweb24 - Here's a little piece of irony... It was your post from 2005, "Burp Castle -- Beer in NYC", that actually led us to this unique little bar that specializes in Belgian beer.

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...1&tid=34624917

From what I understand, Burp Castle recently had a change in management, and is now a much better establishment than what it had been the last two years. So maybe the "beer gods" just wanted you to wait until Burp Castle could really be enjoyed. I do hope that someday you will be able to visit. By the way... great link! Thanks.

Two Fat Feet and Dohlice - Thank you for the additional input (and the "crowning"). My list just keeps getting longer. Problem now is - too many bars, not enough time.

Robyn >-

Great report and can't wait to try these spots.