I arrived home from work on Wednesday afternoon with contained excitement about the impending 4-day weekend coming up, wanting to do something with the time instead of wasting away sitting here at the computer. A jaunt into the city to partake in some beer and hooky delight with my husband and our friend, Steve, was at the top of the list of great ideas and soon a plan came together.
First stop: The Blind Tiger. Known for their killer tap list, I immediately pounced on the cask beer list (my favorite style of beer) and downed a Black Jack/Warrior Cask Ale by Left Hand Brewing Company.
UH-MAY-ZING. Amazing.
We pulled up a couple short stools next to the fireplace (which wasn’t on during this sunny, beautiful 80 degree day) and I pulled out my hook and got down to business. My beer was gone pretty quickly, as happens with cask conditioned beer, so I ordered a He’Brew Hop Manna IPA by Shmaltz Brewing Company. Another fine choice. I sat here sipping my beer enjoying the sunshine filtering in from the large propped open windows. Perfect day!
By then the bar started getting packed and I was happy to be hooking away in my quiet spot amongst all the merriment of a Friday afternoon. It was then that I began noticing lots of guys in uniform as though the entire naval fleet had let out in NYC.
The last beer I had before we headed out was a good ol’ standby beer: a Dogfish 90 Minute IPA. At this point, I’d been working out an idea for the side portion of handbag design and had finally figured it out when we decided it was time for something else to fill up our stomachs: pizza.
Next stop: Rattle N Hum. Another craft beer bar with an amazingly long list of bottles and taps. I settled on another cask style beer: Hop Head Red by Green Flash Brewing Co. I enjoyed long sips of it while I continued to work out my design, albeit in must less light and in a rowdy crowd of both Rangers and Devils fans who were tuned into the game on the many tv’s overhead. The bar was busy but not as packed as the last time I came here. I don’t recommend trying to do a lot of hooking in here if you have bad eyesight because it’s a pretty dark bar.
We left after one drink, knowing we had one more beer bar stop. A quick stop into another pizza place to lay down more base for this last stop and we were on the way.
Last stop: The Ginger Man. Another incredible bar that boasts a super long list of taps and bottles, I ordered a dessert beer: Chocolate Porter by Defiant Brewing Co. and one of their awesome cinnamon sugar pretzels that comes with yummy cream cheese. Both were gone rather quickly and by then, it was time to leave. So sad!
On the way to the train station, I snapped a few pictures of some buildings that just seemed so electric to me. It was like having a free light show at the end of the evening.
I’ve decided that a beer and yarn store crawl are next in order. I’m going to be spending some time mapping out some places to hit real soon.
Summer, here I come!
