Favorite Long Island Beer Bars

[Donavan Hall]

Let's get this rolling with a simple question: What's your favorite Long Island Beer Bar? Can't choose one? Then list all your favorites.

Y'all can probably guess my favorite. It's within walking distance of my house. My next favorite place is in Patchogue; it's called Once & For All.

Now it's your turn!

[Donavan Hall]

The guy that owns Mr. Beery's, his last name is really Beery. Not his fault I think.

[Mark]

Fair enuff if his name is Beery, but he still didn't have to name it that. Mr. Beery's sounds like some drunken frat boy hang out where they drink yards of beer as the crowd cheers. Does nothing for the already bad image of beer and beer drinkers.... which isn't the owner's obligation I suppose but to me the name paints a picture of a place I would not want to visit but my 22 year old nephew would.

[Rich]

While I can appreciate Dek's as the bar I visit most, I am partial to Canterbury Ales because it's near home and Bobbique because....I love BBQ. I should also give favorable mention to Waterzooi just because it takes me back to Europe the moment I walk through the door, even though I don't have any Euros in my pocket.

[Mike]

I went to Croxley Ales in Rockville Centre for the first time last week while looking for houses to rent in the area. It was a nice looking place, empty in the afternoon, but I can't rank it very high on the list of beer bars overall. The beer list was nothing extraordinary, although they have a lot. The service was somewhat apathetic. There were too many TVs. And my Paulaner Hefe tasted like the lines needed cleaning, and the head quickly died like the glassware needed a rinse as well. Still, I'll probably go there frequently when I move down to LI next month. Gotta admit it, though: so far I prefer Manhattan beer bars, Blind Tiger, Hop Devil, Ginger Man, and some of the Brooklyn ones that I've been to, like Mugs. Ok, don't flame me too hard.

[Mark]

No flames...a fair assesment.....as I said in my post there are some very solid offerings on LI but nothing quite at the level of the City....my guess is it's purely a function of numbers and perhaps to a lesser extent beer culture....while only a handful of us on LI would get jazzed to hear a bar had Greenflash IPA on tap or some Belgian rarity just in, the City bars have no problem of drawing crowds for these type beers. LI, maybe not so much.
The real beer mecca of NYC is Williamsburg...Spuyten, Mugs, Barcade, Radegast Hall, Brooklyn brewery tasting room, Fete Sau, etc etc....if I lived there I'd never get off the bar stool so it's probably a good thing...

[Boozehound]

For me, Huntington and now (at last!) Patchogue are becoming decent places to crawl.

True, they do not hold a candle to what can be done in Manhattan but I think that can be applied to most things! ;) A crawl through Dogpatch would be great since you could easily hit everything and have more tha one beer at each stop.

[Mike]

Sounds like a great idea, as I finally found a place on LI and I expect to be an official resident in mid-July.

[Mark]

and the winner is?

[Mike]

If the "winner" is the place that gets me as a resident, it is Valley Stream, in the Hewlett-Woodmere School District, so my beer-hating daughter can go to a nice kindergarten. It's also just a ten minute walk from the LIRR so I can have many drunken adventures in the city.

[Donavan Hall]

We'll have to arrange a play date. My son is just starting kindergarten. Cheers!

[Donavan Hall]

Actually, I think we were supposed to do a Patchogue pubcrawl. How about the 12th of July?

[Donavan Hall]

I'm now updating my Long Island craft beer guide. If there are places I should add to the guide please let me know. I'd love to go to some new places and add them to the list. Cheers!