Alphabet City Beer Co.
Bryan Kim's line for The Infatuation is that
mostly you come here to drink lesser-known beers on draft, and on the way out you can raid the fridges by the door for beer, meat and cheese.1
Why go
It is a long dark room on Avenue C with concrete floors, wooden ceiling beams, one very large communal table and a number of leather armchairs.2 Hannah Albertine's beer-bars guide puts it next to Proletariat, an East Village room she describes as about as wide as an Amtrak train car. George Keeley is on the same list, and shows its whole tap list on a screen above the bar. Here you get an armchair.2 The shop side also sells honey and pickles, so the last order of the night can be groceries.
Order this / avoid
- Order: whatever is on draft that you have not heard of, and ask at the bar what is on.1
- Avoid: treating it as a dinner. The fridges are a shop counter.
What locals & experts say
- Bryan Kim, The Infatuation NYC, 12 February 2020, on the shop half:
Near the entrance, you'll see some fridges filled with beer, meat, and cheese, and you'll also find a small selection of honey, pickles, and other things typical of attractive, impractical grocery stores.
1 - Hannah Albertine puts it on The 38 Best Beer Bars In NYC, on the strength of the room:
go ahead and treat this bar like your living room. Dates, book clubs, it works for everything.
2
Verdict
could-visit — Go for a long drink, and do your shopping on the way out.