NYC Tastes

There are so many reasons to stop by The Pickle Shack in Park Slope...let's start with the drinks.  The draft list is always filled with greats from Dogfish Head like the classic 60 Minute IPA to the more elusive Bitches Brew and 120 Minute.  The bottle list contains even more gems; my last visit they had both Westbrook Mexican Cake and Alesmith Decadence.   Plus a whole slew of incredible food options...all of them vegetarian and all seriously delicious. Like the Breakfast Sandwich made with fresh farm eggs scrambled with aged cheddar, avocado, arugula salad and hot sauce. Good lord the eggs here are perfect.  Softly scrambled with just a sprinkle of herbs layered on top of thick fluffy bread.   It's so big you'll require two hands to chow down and don't forget to slather on some of that hot sauce.  Not a fan of beer or pickles- no problem!  The Pickle Shack has a ton of wine and cider options and just about everything can be ordered sans gher...

It seems like I've been waiting forever for the opening of Eataly's rooftop restaurant but last night it finally happened. Mr T and I were walking around Eataly and noticed a security guard standing at the entrance. I asked him what was going on and he said "20 minutes till opening". WTF! I was in line waiting immediately. Soon we were up in the elevator and walking onto the open patio was amazing! I absolutely loved the beautiful wooden staircase painted with various phrase's from Dante’s Divine Comedy. We knew we wanted to eat dinner but I felt like checking out the bar scene so instead of sitting at one of the red tables in the middle we grabbed a few seats at the bar. I started out with one of their cask brews an Eataly Pale Ale. This had nice golden hues and standard hops- a very tasty Pale Ale. For the more adventurous beer drinker I would suggest the Gina- a Thyme Pale Ale which brought a spicy kick to the front and tasted extremely refreshing on th...

I noticed this new Dogfish Head in Whole Foods yesterday and something about it really caught my eye. One of the workers there saw me inspecting the label and bounded over to spew the wondrous virtues of this beer. His exact words at one point were “I drink this beer for breakfast.” Well that is a pretty strong recommendation. So I picked one up and brought it home for us to try out (at night time mind you) Apparently Dogfish makes this beer by using the same method for brewing a Finnish style beer Sahti. After mixing the grains they add juniper berries to flavor the beer instead of hops. Then they heat white hot rocks over a fire to use for boiling the wort. Dogfish adds a black chai tea to finish the brewing process which makes it a completely different kind of beer than the Finns brewed. Appearance- This beer poured a cloudy amber with a small head that quickly dissipated. Aroma- Wow! This smelled exactly like a Chai Tea from your local Coffee shop. I wouldn’t be ...

We were at Blind Tiger a few weeks back and saw that they had Dogfish Heads new IPA on the menu. Unfortunately when we ordered it they had just run out. So imagine my surprise when I saw a couple bottles at the Bowery Whole Foods. I always forget that place has a ton of great beers. So I picked one up and brought it home to try out. The Squall is basically their classic IPA that instead has been unfiltered and bottle conditioned. They apparently made this beer in collaboration with a clothing store not to far from the brewery. They were inspired by the clothes they made and came up with this beer as an ode to them. The beer poured a dark brown with a decent sized head on the top (the Steam Whistle Glass seemed to fit). The smell is exactly like the regular 90 minute IPA- strong and hoppy. The difference between these two beers lies in the taste. While both have that extreme malty complex flavor, the Squall seems a bit more balanced. It has a slightly sweet finish to t...