After spending two years in the beer wasteland that is Los Angeles, I’m excited to be back in the northeast, where getting a really good beer isn’t a pain in the ass.
I was first turned onto great beer during the year I spent in Amherst, Massachusetts. I was fortunate to live less than a mile from The Moan and Dove, an incomparable and inspirational beer bar.
Craft beers and brewpubs are fine (and the west coast has plenty—I’m looking at you Portland), but truth be told, many craft brews are crap. What I really look for in a good beer town are establishments that serve as beer curators, not necessarily beer creators. (After all, if your town makes any decent beers, that place will carry them!)
And New York overflows with such places. The average corner bodega has a better selection than 95% of the stores I frequented in LA, and tonight I discovered the above beer selection at the Whole Foods in the East Village (and that’s only half of their stock).
This doesn’t even include the neighborhood bars, in which I’ve been like a kid in a candy store—a candy store with tasty, fermented, knock-you-on-your-ass candy.
I’m happy to be back in beerland.
