Peter's since 1969 and Breukelen Bier Merchants - Brooklyn, #NewYork

Deciding to spend our last two days in Brooklyn was one of the best moves we made, the only problem was that we liked it so much we wished we had longer. That said, we got there before lunch the first day and didn't need to leave until late the next, so managed to squeeze in some excellent food and beer in a short space of time.

Our first day in Brooklyn was the one bad weather day whilst we were in New York (the photo here was taken on the second), with some seriously torrential rain threatening to ruin the party. Luckily it was still pretty warm and there's lots of great places to duck into for refuge, just like the place we ate a late lunch, Peter's Since 1969.

Peter's is a Southern home style restaurant that's all about comfort food made well and served in a relaxing environment. Their menu consists of specialities such as rotisserie chicken alongside more American staples like meat loaf and collared greens. We went on the recommendation of the house and opted for the meat loaf lunch special, which came with two sides (we went with mash and collared greens), creamy sauce, gravy, corn bread, and a soup or salad for around $7. Stunningly good value, delicious and filling food to boot. Perfect wet weather fare.

They also have a few decent beers on tap, I think I drank a Brooklyn seasonal of some sort, again for a good price of under $5, but to be honest I was concentrating on the food.

After an afternoon spent perusing vintage shops trying to find a decent leather wallet which fits British notes (me) and some denim jean shorts (the missus, I swear) a beer was very much on my mind. Breukelen Bier Merchants was the next port of call, firstly because I wanted to see if there were any interesting bottles I'd missed that I wanted to buy to take home, but secondly because their happy hour runs 4-7 and offers every draft beer at $3 a pint. That's very, very cheap.

Plus they don't fuss over abvs: Any beer, any strength, one pint, $3. Would this ever happen in the UK? I doubt it.

I jumped straight in at the deep end with Firestone Black Rye IPA at 8% abv. Did I mention it was $3 a pint?

This was a great black IPA with sweet ripe mango and light cocoa in the aroma, fruity and lush in the initial taste before a flood of dark malt and then a long bitterly resinous finish. Lovely stuff and very drinkable for 8% too.

I did have a few more beers but we had got chatting to some locals and I stopped paying attention to the beer too much, though I remember all but one beer being excellent (the American Wit wasn't great if I remember rightly).

Breukelen Bier Merchants is a great place to hang out and we ended up staying for the majority of happy hour, which still left us enough of the evening to get around some more places which I'll be writing about in my next post.

Oh and my post on Brooklyn Brewery is still to come too.

 

http://breukelenbiermerchants.com/

http://www.peterssince.com/