Many Greenpoint beer afficianados these days do not drink cans or bottles of beer. In places like Beer Street (413 Graham Avenue), One Stop Beer Shop (134 Kingsland Avenue) and Brouwerij Lane (78 Greenpoint Avenue), drinkers quaff growlers of beer, but the growler is nothing new in Greenpoint. It has a long local history.
There is no clear idea of where the term growler comes from. A growler has been defined as:
Growler: A pitcher or other vessel for beer, 1885, American English, of uncertain origin; apparently an agent noun from growl (v.)
In early days the expression “work the growler” meant go on a spree. An article from the Brooklyn Daily Eagle in the 1880s describing the gang-infested Greenpoint area between Ash and Eagle Streets known as Dangertown (gotta love the name) reported that the local gangs robbed people to get money for the sole purpose of “working the growler.” Continue reading →
It’s that lovely time of year when it stops being deathmetal-hot, but it’s still warm enough to enjoy a cold glass of rose or white wine and some delicious oysters as a pre-dinner aperitif. Here’s where we found the best oyster happy hours in Greenpoint! Shuck ’em up! Continue reading →
Take it from us: there really is no way to prepare your body for the consumption of alcohol at ten o’clock in the morning. No amount of crack-of-dawn jogging, smoothie making or transcendent meditation will make it any easier to knock back even one sip of a strong brew before your breakfast has begun to digest. We don’t know how we didn’t expect this, showing up to photograph the first-ever canning run at Greenpoint Beer and Ale Co. The process, led by Iron Heart Canning was mind blowing enough even without the pre-lunch intoxication.
Far from the beginning of this brewery’s story, this canning is but an exciting new chapter in their long history making and importing wonderful beer. Owner Ed Raven has been in the business of great suds since the 1980s. Not long after getting his start with the Brooklyn Brewery, he began his own importing company, RavenBrands, and opened the Brouwerij Lane beer shop on Greenpoint Avenue in the early 2000s. After Raven opened Greenpoint Beer and Ale Co. in 2014, the beer shop began to serve as a pseudo-training ground for young hopefuls who want to work at the brewery–honing their palettes and familiarizing themselves with beers from all over the world. Continue reading →
Novelist StephanieDanler’s favorite depiction of food in literature comes from the Seamus Heaney poem “Oysters,” which begins:
Our shells clacked on the plates. My tongue was a filling estuary, My palate hung with starlight: As I tasted the salty Pleiades Orion dipped his foot into the water.
Danler mentioned the poem in a panel discussion on food in literature titled “Food and Fiction,” one of the events at this year’s Food Book Fair, which was held at the Wythe Hotel in Williamsburg on May 1st and 2nd.
Danler, who wrote Sweetbitter, was joined on the panel by Jessica Tom, author of the novel Food Whore, and Helen Ellis, whose collection of humorous short stories American Housewife came out earlier this year. Cathy Erway, host of “Eat Your Words” on the Heritage Radio Network and author of The Food of Taiwan and The Art of Eating In, was the moderator.
The sensory richness of the Seamus Heaney poem that Danler cited—“my palate hung with starlight”—set a fitting tone for the Food Book Fair, which felt like a celebration of all that is beautiful in food writing and publishing.Continue reading →
Greenpoint Beer & Ale (formerly Dirck The Norseman) is celebrating their new design, branding and renaming this Sunday from 1-3pm. If you’re stopping by there, you might as well swing by our Spring market down the street, where they’ll be pouring more of their awesome beer.
Owner Ed Raven has three decades of experience in the craft beer market, and is also the mind behind Brouwerij Lane. Which, if you’re a beer fan in the neighborhood and for some crazy reason you haven’t been there, you need kick your butt out the door and go pick up a growler RIGHT NOW. Greenpoint Beer & Ale’s re-name came about because they wanted to really make it clear that the focus was on the beer. “We wanted to make it easier for people to find us. Look up ‘Greenpoint Beer’ and you know exactly who we are and what we are,” says Raven.
A tasty-looking cold one via Greenpoint Beer & Ale’s Instagram
GBA’s rebranding is part of a new look created by their in-house graphic designer Joshua Whitehead. New menus, outdoor signage, t-shirts, glassware, stickers and more will be on display.
Hearty beef & Guinness stew with carrots and mushrooms, over mashed potatoes
My mother is born-and-raised solid country stock from County Westmeath, Ireland. She remembers St. Patrick’s Day celebrations as chiefly religious, with the country going to mass with freshly-picked clovers pinned to buttonholes to honor their patron saint. Then there would be a shared family meal with special-occasion ingredients like beef or lamb, usually presented in roasts or stews.
Regardless of how you choose to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day (or whether you want to avoid all related shenanigans entirely), this traditional Irish dish is straight-forward, nourishing, rich, and perfect for spooning out among any group of friends and family (though with all due respect to my grandmother and her preferred method of just dumping everything in a big pot and leaving it, I’ve added and tweaked some steps to improve texture and flavor).
Lobster Joint’s beer garden (courtesy their Facebook page)
Greenpoint (and pretty much all of NYC) will be experiencing record breaking temps of almost 70 degrees over the next two days. It’s March, people. Are you ready to strip off those coats? Here are some of our favorite outdoor spots in Greenpoint where you can soak up some of that good ol’ Vitamin E.
Lobster Joint – 1073 Manhattan Ave. Open from noon every day, they’ve got a lovely New Englandy open air beer garden in the back of their seafood restaurant. Grub on a lobster roll and chill out with a beer.
Join us at Greenpoint Beer and Ale/Dirck the Norseman on New Years Eve to welcome in 2016! It’s a cork-poppin’, rock-n-rollin’, champagne-toastin’, kick off to the new year!
NYE @ GPB leaves 2015 in the dust with FREE Beer, Wine and Well Spirits for an early bird special of $75! For all who join us, a complimentary Champagne toast at Midnight kicks off the New Year!
Along with Jever Pilsener, Gaffel Kolsch, Riegele Privat and Kellerbier,
our line up of 12 in-house craft brews include: Continue reading →
Adobera Arepa with queso fresco, black bean spread, avocado and pickled jalapenos (Image from @centavonyc)
The nights are drawing in, the temperature’s gradually dropping and it’s starting to be hands in pockets weather – but we’re not talking coat pockets – oh no – we’re talking yummy little stuffed arepa pockets!
A brand new weekly pop-up at Brooklyn Safehouse is bringing delicious arepas to Franklin street every Wednesday night. The pop-up is called Centavo, and is run by trio of friends John Monastero, Mike Lee and Mary O’Reilly, who are taking of advantage of cozy season to roll out an inventive menu of comforting hand-held treats to hungry bar-dwellers. Continue reading →
Take it from us: there really is no way to prepare your body for the consumption of alcohol at ten o’clock in the morning. No amount of crack-of-dawn jogging, smoothie making or transcendent meditation will make it any easier to knock back even one sip of a strong brew before your breakfast has begun to digest. We don’t know how we didn’t expect this, showing up to photograph the first-ever canning run at 
