The Great American Ale Trail - Christian DeBenedetti [123]
BROOKLYN BOWL
61 Wythe Ave. (between N. 11th St. & 12th St.) Brooklyn, NY 11211 • 718-963-3369 • brooklynbowl.com Established: 2009
SCENE & STORY
In addition to sixteen state-of-the art alleys, Brooklyn Bowl has ten local craft brews on tap, cool punk-inspired art, mega-size flat-screen TVs, swank black leather Chesterfield couches, a DJ platform, and legendary talents from Questlove to the Funky Meters appearing on a main stage practically every night. Pushing it right over the top, the local culinary wizards behind Blue Ribbon (with locations in Park Slope and Manhattan) have reinvented the typical ten-pin alley menu around haute soul food staples such as fried chicken, collard greens with bacon, baby back ribs, blackened Cajun catfish, and pork rinds served with cilantro, jalapeño, red onion, and queso fresco. It’s all a bit pricey, but where else are going to find all of these things under one roof?
PHILOSOPHY
Goodness and plenty of it. This LEED-certified shrine to the ultimate leisure sport is surely the only set of lanes in America with 200-year-old reclaimed wood floors, tables made from old bowling alley lanes, and 100 percent wind-powered air conditioning, which keeps it White-Russian-cool even on the hottest summer night.
KEY BEER
There are ten draft beers, including five from Brooklyn Brewery next door, three from Six Point, and two from Kelso. Brooklyn’s Blast Double IPA should encourage just the right amount of swagger to make those post-spare dance routines unforgettable.
MISSION DOLORES
249 4th Ave. (between President St. & Carroll St.) Brooklyn, NY 11215 • (718) 399-0099 missiondoloresbar.com • Established: 2010
SCENE & STORY
From the owners of Bar Great Harry on nearby Smith Street comes an urbanite’s shrine to rare and recherché craft beer, classic pinball games, and reclaimed building materials. Owner Mike Wiley says he wanted the interior to look something like a huge Vol du Nuit (see Manhattan entries), with luminous natural light coming through skylights so visitors can luxuriate in all the textures of wood, metal, cement, glass and other materials that were used to form the interior, benches, and bar. Like Bar Great Harry this is a place for drinking beer, but should hunger strike, you can order a savory meat pie from the same bakery (DUB) that supplies Bar Great Harry.
PHILOSOPHY
The owners’ own site refers to it as “that weird bar at 4th and Carroll,” which is understating how incredibly cool this place looks on the inside, and how pleasant it is to pass some time here among committed beer lovers, or the merely curious. A bar for the adventurous, Mission Dolores hosted a “Where the Wild Beers Are” festival in October 2011 for wild and sour ales.
KEY BEER
There are twenty tap lines, about three-quarters of them American craft beers; the remaining are Belgian or German, and there’s always usually one cask. Standout offerings include several hard-to-find West Coast brews from Green Flash, Ballast Point, and Firestone Walker. Another recent score: the rare, 9.5% ABV Mikkeller/Brew-Dog collaboration DIPA (Double, or Imperial IPA), Hardcore You.
GOWANUS YACHT CLUB
323 Smith St. (at President St.) • Brooklyn, NY 11231 No phone, No website, no worries
SCENE & STORY
Forewarning: the G.Y.C. is a ramshackle sidewalk affair in Carroll Gardens with rickety picnic tables, uneven service, a bunch of smart-aleck rules (sometimes enforced, e.g. “no patchouli”), little protection from the elements, and all stripes of tragic hipster. But no matter. This seasonal (May through October) Brooklyn afternoon drinking rite rife with nautical airs, named for a Super-fund sluice of toxic waste a few blocks south, is “garage-sale chic meets Gilligan’s Island,” according to the owner, who owns some other, less cool bars. Think: plastic cups and grilled frankfurters with kraut,