The Great American Ale Trail - Christian DeBenedetti [119]
THE GATE
321 5th Ave. (between 3rd St. & 4th) • Brooklyn, NY 11215 (718) 768-4329 • thegatebrooklyn.blogspot.com Established: 1997
SCENE & STORY
Channeling old-world hospitality, the Gate has become many a Brooklyn craft beer lover’s home away from home. The main reason for this is a brilliant beer selection. But it’s more about the down-to-earth ambiance. With dark wood walls and a wide wooden bar, it’s got the perfect Brooklyn mix of edge and coziness. The bartender has a speed metal group that plays on Halloween (“Smokewagon”), but the jukebox will spin Patsy Cline when you need it, too.
The Gate is also beloved for its patio, which, spread out on an airy Park Slope street corner, is, hands down, the borough’s best place for an afternoon beer. As soon as the warm weather hits, the Gate is a hive of activity, and the hefeweizen’s always fresh. Best of all, when hunger hits, simply ask the bartenders for the takeout bible, a three-ring binder with about 1,000 menus from nearby restaurants that will deliver sustenance directly to you. (Bonny’s Burgers is the best bet.)
PHILOSOPHY
Not too serious, not joking around. Local Brooklyn micros share the tap row with European classics like Augustiner. And the tap dating, written on a pair of chalkboards, is a welcome addition.
KEY BEER
Ithaca Gorges Brewing Company, in the Finger Lakes region of upstate New York, has been making inroads into the crowded New York beer market. Look for their Smoked Porter (6.3% ABV), an American take on the German tradition of using malt smoked over beechwood fires, which lends a briney edge nicely reminiscent of campfire smoke.
PACIFIC STANDARD
82 4th Ave. • Brooklyn, NY 11217 • (718) 858-1951 pacificstandardbrooklyn.com • Established: 2007
SCENE & STORY
The arrival of this friendly, exposed-brick taproom a stone’s throw from the Atlantic-Pacific subway hub helped usher in a renaissance for this section of Nowheresville, Brooklyn, a windblown patch of asphalt along 4th Avenue between the brownstones of Park Slope and the delis and boutiques of Boerum Hill, Carrol Gardens, and Cobble Hill a bit further West. Suddenly the area has several good bars with excellent vibes and beer lists, and it would be easy to spend an evening traipsing around this sector of Brooklyn, which is essentially the setting for Jonathan Lethem’s novel Fortress of Solitude. The Brooklyn Inn, Bar Great Harry, the Gate, Mission Dolores, and 4th Avenue Pub are all reachable by a short walk, as are Southpaw, Barbés, and the Bell House, three excellent music venues with solid beer lists of their own.
Tuesdays are three-dollar-pint nights; on Sundays, regulars cram in for a tricky pub quiz at 8 p.m. There are readings in the spring and fall and storytelling nights three times a month, and the list of well-established writers and poets who have appeared in the slightly ramshackle but nevertheless comfy couch- and booth-filled backroom is impressive, from Colson Whitehead and Philip Levine to Joseph O’Neill and Joshua Ferris.
PHILOSOPHY
A refuge for West Coasters grinding it out in go-go New York, without being too affected; it’s just a regular, comfortable, friendly bar, the kind of place to hunker down in and plan a road trip, and then cap it off on the tail end, too.
KEY BEER
Of the sixteen taps, six are typically dedicated to the West Coast craft brewers like Rogue, Lagunitas, Anchor, Sierra Nevada, and 21st Amendment, and casks make regular appearances as well. Somehow the angular, fulsome bite of Lagunitas Pils seems like exactly the right beer here every time.
SPUYTEN DUYVIL
359 Metropolitan Ave. (between 4th St.