We’re often asked, “What makes a Good Beer Seal bar?” Well, there’s a long answer and a short answer. The latter is “a bar committed to great craft beer and community.” But what really makes a Good Beer Seal bar is when the public recognizes its presence in the greater NYC bar/restaurant community. This past week, we saw just what a difference being a Good Beer Seal bar makes, when Brew York New York‘s Chris O’Leary set up a #BARchmadness bracket, pairing off 64 of the city’s best bars in a fight for bragging rights. Modeled on the NCAA’s March Madness, this bracket competition invited the public to vote for their favorite bars.
Amongst those 64 pairings were 32 Good Beer Seal bars. Let’s do the math: There are approximately 1700 bars in the city, of which 45 are GBS bars (while there are 50 GBS bars total, some are in New Jersey or on Long Island… the non-Brooklyn part). Thus, fewer than three percent of the city’s bars have been awarded the Good Beer Seal, yet 50 percent of the bars chosen to compete are GBS bars. That’s what makes a GBS bar special. And, what’s more, the second round has just begun, revealing 19 GBS bars advancing. In other words, GBS bars now make up almost 60 percent of the bars in #BARchmadness!
In the first round, the following GBS bars were paired off (sadly, many against each other):
| In Manhattan | In Brooklyn |
| 124 Old Rabbit Club
Blind Tiger Burp Castle Dive Bar George Keeley’s Idle Hands Jimmy’s No. 43 Rattle-N-Hum Proletariat The Pony Bar The Pony Bar UES The Stag’s Head |
4th Avenue Pub
61 Local Barcade Bierkraft Mission Dolores Mugs Alehouse Pacific Standard Pine Box Rock Shop Spuyten Duyvil The Diamond The Double Windsor The Gate The Owl Farm |
| In Queens | In Staten Island | In The Bronx |
| Alewife
Sunswick 35/35 The Queens Kickshaw |
Adobe Blues
Killmeyer’s Old Bavaria |
Bronx Ale House |
Moving on to Round 2, we hope you’ll support the following GBS bars with your vote:
- 4th Avenue Pub
- Barcade
- Bronx Alehouse
- Idle Hands
- Jimmy’s No. 43
- Mission Dolores
- The Double Windsor
These GBS bars are facing off against each other, so go with your favorite:
- Blind Tiger v. Mugs Alehouse
- The Owl Farm v. The Pony Bar
- Alewife v. The Gate
- Rattle-N-Hum v. Bierkraft
- 124 Old Rabbit Club v. Proletariat
- The Pony Bar UES v. Dive Bar