United Nations of Beer

Westside Brewing

by David Preiser
(Beer Delegate, NY, USA)

Westside Brewing
NYC, NY, USA

So you're going to see La Forza del Destino at the Metropolitan Opera, but you definitely need to get a couple or three pints down so you can deal with the ridiculous plot where the only way you can tell the opera is over is because everyone is dead.

Okay, maybe instead you've got tickets to Lucinda Williams or Bob Weir and Ratdog at the Beacon Theater and a good meal and a couple of beers will help set the mood. Either way, Westside Brewing Company is just the place.

While it doesn't have the huge beer menu of one of the hardcore places, there's a decent selection, with quite a few interesting things. It's certainly by far the best beer joint on the Upper West Side.

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Depending on the shift, the staff may not always know too much about the beer, but you can always take the empties with you and look up the labels when you get home.

The selection is usually pretty consistent, with a few new beers rotating in and out more or less once a month. They've got good American stuff as well as a nice Trappist Ale or two, plus beers from England and a few other places.

Although they do have a couple of "house" brews so they can call themselves a Brewing Company, they're very average and aren't even made on the Westside Brewing premises. Best to stick with the proper beer menu, which is fine.

It’s not a huge place, but there are several tables down the length of the main room, as well as about ten tables in the back section. The food menu is a really good example of classic American bar and grill dishes.

Even though it's really more of a bar and grill kind of atmosphere, there's always some good beer to be had and it's certainly the best place to go in the area if it's beer you’re looking for.

Westside Brewing is just around the corner from the Beacon Theater, one of the most popular concert venues in the city and about ten minutes' walk to Lincoln Center, for those more Classically inclined.