Best places to drink

[chazwicke]

What is your Favorite local Bar, Pub, Saloon or drinking establishment? What is your favorite non local? Think About it. They might be tougher questions to answer than you thought.

[ray m]

There is a great drinking establishment on Newport on the Levee called the Beer Sellar. This place has dozens of great brews, foreign, and lots of domestic micros. They've got at least a couple hundred selections total. 40 to 60 on tap.

[fidcastro]

Local: Lucky Baldwin's in Pasadena if within 45 minutes is local. Otherwise, Heroe's bar and grill in Claremont. That one's walking distance, and 48 on tap.

Non local: You're right. That's a tough one. Either Gollem Cafe in Amsterdam, Bridgeport's brewpub in Portland, the Great Lakes Brewery in Cleveland, or the Uerige brewery in Dusseldorf.

[steveh]

Local - Kaiser's Pizza and Pub; Guinness and Hacker-Pschorr Weiss on tap, great food, fun atmosphere, and walking distance from my house.

Near Local - The Firkin Pub and Restaurant and Mickey Finn's Brew-Pub.

Not-So-Local - Too many in Chi to list, but a few are: The Map Room, Piece Pizza and Brew-Pub, Chief O'Neil's Irish Pub, Resi's Bierstube, Laschett's, The Chicago Brauhaus, The Heuten Bar, Goose Island...

S.

[chazwicke]

My local would be the Brickskeller. The selection is incredible. Largest in the world. (Check out Guinness Book of World Records.) Unfortunately all of it is in bottles. They do have cask ales on Saturday evenings at the upstairs bar. This is the bar that set me on my beer quest many years ago. The bartender from those days (1976) is still a friend (and he just beat me on an Ebay auction for a Senate Beer crate last night!). Anyway the Bricks has a fond place in my heart. As far as non local Thats a really tough one. I liked most of the pubs I've been to in Britian. And although touristy, some of the brewery beer halls in Munich. Like HofBrauhaus or Paulaner's. Even Lowenbrau. Oh and Schlenkerla at the source in Bamberg. Too hard to come up with just one. Maybe I could come up with one location. Say....Baltimore. Lots of brewpubs and bars and good food too!
Anyone for Bertha's mussels?

[threecb]

Geez, it's like having to pick your favorite kid!

Local: My local BP, Harvest Moon, in New Brunswick, NJ, esp. since they just redid their menu. I like going here for dinner, appys, or just a couple brews. Cool atmosphere in a college town, if you can get past all of the people drinking Corona, Amstel and CoorsLight. (Come on, folks, the beer's brewed fresh on premises!). There are a couple of other BP's in the area that i like (JJ Bittings, Pizzeria Uno), but the Moon has it all, in my book.

Semi-Local: Mile Square or Scotland Yard in Hoboken...or across the river to NYC with, oh, where do I start? The Gingerman, Blind Tiger...

For a long distance, that's the toughest. I'll take a cue from Chazwicke, but narrow it to an area within a city: Armory Square, Syracuse (although with Empire closing, they'll need to do something to get a BP in the area that doesn't promote Coors Light like the Suds Factory). The Blue Tusk, Clark's, etc...not too hard to find good beer there!

[chazwicke]

I've been to Harvest Moon a couple of times. I have a couple growlers from there. There is a restraunt around the corner from there called Old Bay That has a good selection of beer and very good food. (my son lives part time in NJ).

[threecb]

Old Bay is starting a downward trend, unfortunately..check their website and see the BS they're spinning about the C**rs Light they've added to the tap list...

old bay beer list (http://www.oldbay.com/fast1024.html)

They still have a decent selection, but they never catered to the masses before, and I fear that this might be the beginning of a change for the worse.

And Chaz, If you're ever in the 'hood, LMK, i'll buy you a pint at the Moon! Matt McCord is doing some decent work there...

[threecb]

Sorry, due to the flash intro, that link above takes you to the splash screen. Just select Beer List from the top under Drinks menu.

[Bryant]

That is a tough one to call.....

My favorite local brewpub (the only one) is The Cannon Brewpub, Columbus Georgia.

My favorite bars are The Uptown Tap (Harp on tap baby !) and The Loft (a few micros and decent imports) with great atmosphere and live entertainment. Both are also local (Columbus Georgia)

My favorite long distance watering hole would be any of several bars in Ghent Belgium. Ghent is a cool city and for a country as small as it is, they offer an incredible choice of beers. Surrounded by Germany, France, Holland and close to Britain, and culturally influenced by those four countries, they offer diverse beers, but uniquely thei own. Maybe Germany is the "Motherland of beer" and arguably Ireland could be considered the "fatherland" if that is the case, but Belgium quietly brews awesome treats. Even their cheap pilsners on tap are oustanding.

My absolute favorite place to drink is right here at home in front of my PC though. I choose the beer (of what's available at my beer store) the music I listen to and the content of my online entertainment.

Bryant

[Stodbrew]

My local would have to be Seabright Brewery in Santa Cruz, CA. Great year round beers, and a never ending rotation of whatever they feel like brewing, all of which are great.

As far as non local places go, Falling Rock in Denver is always a plus. And I have to agree about most of the pubs in England, as well as the beerhalls in Munich. Haven't been to Belgium yet, but it's definitely on my list.

[skahtboi]

There is a place in Sherman, TX, of all places, called Cellarman's which has a large choice of beer, many on tap and many more in bottles or widget cans. Great place to hang out for several hours, doing beer tours. Not very big, but big enough.

Other places in this area that I really enjoy include The Irish Rover in Frisco and The Londoner Pub in McKinney. Both are pub atmoshpheres with many fine beers on tap.

[hopheaddude]

I don't get to visit very often but the Falling Rock Tap House in Denver is the best for any beer lover. They have the best selection of west coast and east coast brews, and if you have a chance to go during GABF it is incredible.