This is a beer newsletter, but contrary to popular belief, I am interested in consumables other than beer. And while it may seem like sacrilege to consider that anyone outside of New York could make decent pizza, uncovering regional pizza styles is a passion of mine, especially when it can soak up beer under one roof. For example, New Haven-style pizza can be washed down with house-made beer at longtime brewpub and nightclub BAR. I had my first-ever Saint Louis-style pizza at Cugino’s restaurant in Florissant, Missouri, which also happens to house Narrow Gauge Brewing Company. I had my first-ever Chicago Tavern-Style Pizza at Bungalow by Middle Brow (admittedly, it was probably a little too high-falutin’ for the purists of that style). And if there’s a comfort food pairing that I seek out most when I’m home in Rhode Island, it’s a can of Narragansett and a room-temperature pizza strip.
Look, none of these are going to win awards for the best pizza in the world — certainly not by anyone who sees a New York slice as the gold standard. But hey, I don’t love Irish-Style Red Ales, but I still appreciate an Irish-Style Red Ale, the same way I appreciate a deep-dish from Chicago or whatever the hell this monstrosity from Colorado is. And if it soaks up some of the beer I’m drinking in my travels, all the better. Anyway, I found out today that there’s a Dayton-Style Pizza (even more incredibly, there was also an era coined by the local newspaper as the “Dayton Pizza Wars”), so I guess I’m going to have to seek it out on my visit there this weekend in between breweries.
Two Bronx breweries export their taprooms
Two breweries in the Bronx have opened satellite taprooms in other parts of New York City, putting beer from the Boogie-Down even more in reach for the other boroughs without the long subway ride.
Gun Hill Brewing opened Gun Hill Publick House this past weekend in Industry City in Brooklyn. The taproom is on the second floor of Building 6 (68 34th Street), just down the hallway from Fort Hamilton Distillery (which, conveniently, gave Gun Hill some barrels for some future barrel-aging projects). The tucked-away taproom has almost an industrial speakeasy kind of vibe, with a bar and some table and lounge seating. Beers are available to stay and in cans to go. The taps are currently pouring brews made in the Bronx, but the pilot brewhouse here will churn out unique Gun Hill creations exclusive to Brooklyn soon. The taproom is open Wednesday through Sunday from 1-10pm, and is also just a quick shuffle away from Big aLICe’s Barrel Room in the same building.
Meanwhile, in Manhattan, The Bronx Brewery has opened their new taproom in Hudson Yards. The space is in the ritzy shopping center at 20 Hudson Yards, on Level 2 on the 10th Avenue side, next to Ana Bar & Eatery. The taproom features plenty of seating both inside the storefront and out on the mall, with ten beers on tap, a food menu from their in-house kitchen, and a retail space with cans and merch to go. Like their other Manhattan location in the East Village, this space features a pilot brewhouse for small batches that will be served on-site. Don’t think the mall location means the brewery’s personality is gone — when I visited last weekend, there was a DJ spinning, which was a nice differentiation from the sterility of the mall outside. The space is currently open every day from 11am-9pm.
Brewery Visit of the Week
Brewery #2859: Rejects Beer Co., Middletown, Rhode Island (Visited 25-Nov-2022)
Some people spend their Black Friday lining up for deals. I spend it visiting new breweries. Rejects Beer Co. has been around for nearly two years, opening in the midst of the pandemic in 2020, and as someone who grew up in Rhode Island and visits there frequently, it was a shame it took me so long to get here. It’s “too far” by Ocean State standards — the mental gymnastics that Rhode Islanders play to avoid crossing two bridges to get to the Newport area (that, and the excuse that it’s “too crowded” in Newport during the summer).
There’s a surfer and skater bum kind of vibe at Rejects that is both subtle (in the music choices) and overt (in the skateboard in the logo and the occasional surf competitions on the TV). It’s also only a short walk from Newport’s First Beach, and the taproom faces out onto a salt pond that wafts onto the patio. The taproom bar has a little bit of a hippie’s basement kind of thing going for it, with wood paneling and colorful lava lamps surrounding the taps. Even when the USA-England World Cup match was on TV and everyone was on edge as we entered the 90th minute still knotted at 0-0, the whole place felt relaxed.
The highlight here beer-wise was, without a doubt, the ESB. Not a huge surprise that when I asked the bartender for this beer, he said it was his favorite. It was my favorite, too, slightly nutty and biscuity, easy-drinking, and not at all cloying. It might be the first-ever ESB I’ve taken home in a four-pack. Good on ya, Rejects.
Social Post of the Week
Nobody likes haze anymore.
Long Read of the Week
Ray McNeill of McNeill’s Brewery in Brattleboro, Vermont was a pioneer of craft beer, and formative to my beer education, sending his beer to New York City early in my drinking career. His brewery had been closed since the pandemic began, and he tragically passed away in a fire in his apartment upstairs from the brewhouse last week. Andy Crouch has a great remembrance of him at All About Beer.
One Last Thing
I mentioned Gun Hill Brewing earlier in the newsletter, but here’s another bit of news: their Barrel Aged Beer Festival is back for another year of rich, warming beers in the dead of January. They’ll host it at the brewery in the Bronx on Saturday, January 14th, with their own special releases and more beers from more than twenty other visiting breweries. Tickets are on sale now. This is one of the best reasons to skip Dry January. Just take it a little easier in December.
Cheers,
Chris
BTW, Happy Holidays. Er...Merry Christmas
Chris, I hope I never come across that Colorado disaster. So far, everyone is trying to perfect the Neapolitan style, which is more than fine by me. As part of the greater Boston diaspora, and more specifically, Braintree, and the South Shore of Boston, I am partial to the "Bar Pizza." Given its blue collar roots, it's most likely paired with a Bud or Bud Lite, or maybe a Sam Adams. Nevertheless, the bar pizza too is gentrifying, as this guy went looking for bar pizza and craft beer. Still waiting for a tap room to bring in some bar pizza. Massholes can only hope....
https://backyardroadtrips.com/2020/03/10/bar-pizza-and-craft-beer-on-the-south-shore/