Yes, a bit of Dylan, from before he went weird/wired.
“Grabbed hold of a subway car
And after a rocking, reeling, rolling ride
I landed up on the downtown side
Greenwich Village“
From the Staten ferry I walked to Greenwich Village via Tribeca, an area that accounts for 62% of total New York coffee consumption.
The walk took in the awesome,
and the chilling.
“Go to the Blind Tiger” said someone whose name is probably an anagram of “Non League Moth“.
So I did.
This is near the street where Mr Zimmerman made his inappropriate clothing choices back in the winter of ’63 on the shoot for his second album.
Bob’s views on craft beer aren’t well known but I like this quote.
I wasn’t expecting the Blind Tiger (97 on RateBeer) to be that busy, but at 15:25 on a Monday it was packed.
To be honest, it doesn’t take much to be packed in New York; bars are generally tiny.
So I sat at the bar, between a couple and a hipster.
“Ooh, look just like Port St Beer House” I thought, lazily. But it sort of does.
A bit darker, a bit more lived-in, but the same demographic, all drinking graprefruit murk. And why shouldn’t they ?
Anyway, I had the lone cask beer. Newburgh Plan B Boss Farmhouse IPA. You try saying that after four pints of Duclaw Haze of Passion.
It was warm and indistinct. If the Blind Tiger was on WhatPub I’d have scored it NBSS 1.5. As it is, lesson learned. Cask and 31 degrees don’t mix.
But the Duclaw was good. And the local hipster had something dark and treacly.
I asked him what it was.
“Firestone Walker Imperial Stout” he replied, in such perfect English that he could only have been a Norwegian IT consultant on an assignment in New York. And he was.
“Firestone Walker ? I thought they were Big Beer” I said, feigning beer intelligence.
“They are, but even big breweries can sometimes make great beer“. Oh.
And so they can. It was magic. So good I couldn’t even force down a Bass in the Slaughtered Lamb.
retiredmartin 
You can’t really argue with a brewery who produce a beer called Velvet Merkin.
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Great post. Cask over here is generally pretty weak. Three would be a good day in most cases.
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Number 9 on the Pie-Tin Pub Crawl and tbh Mrs PP-T and I were getting a bit cross-eyed at that point.
But even all these years later I can still recall a peculiar smell in the place,somewhere between vomit and bad parmesan cheese.
Probably our least-favourite of all ten and for reasons other than the above which I can’t quite put my finger on.
It might have been the snooty bar staff in that craft beer hipstery sort of way.
We were glad to stumble on to the final bar, the legendary Ear Inn.
1. Waterfront Ale House 540 2nd Avenue.
2. Old Town Bar 45 E18th.
3. McSorleys 15 E 7th.
4. Burp Castle 41 E 7th St.
5. Jimmy’s No.43 43 E 7th
6. D.b.a 41 1st Avenue.
7. Puck Fair 298 Lafayette St.
8. Peculiar Pub 145 Bleecker St.
9. Blind Tiger Ale House 281 Bleecker St.
10. Ear Inn 326 Spring St
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P P-T,
“a peculiar smell in the place,somewhere between vomit and bad parmesan cheese” – I never knew there was a difference.
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It’s subtle.
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Then you’ve got a better sense of smell than me – one that no doubt helps you seek out that citrusy aroma.
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I have been to the Chepstow side of Aust Ferry – see the cover of no Direction Home or whatever it was called
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I loved the Blind Tiger and had a very similar experience. It was busy, friendly and had some wonderful beer, though the cask offering wasn’t one of them. Interesting list from PPT. Must go back again one day.
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Big brewers do good beer…I can only imagine what Rich would have said!!
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All the titchy breweries want to be big!
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I agree it was like the old indie charts in the eighties
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Yes, when I read that line “even big breweries can sometimes make great beer”, I imagined Martin must have thought, “Good heavens, the man is quoting me back to me!” 🙂
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