| Baker Street Brewery's founder and head brewer Art Hannemann takes you on a journey to find the ales. Catch the train for Arty's ride to the New Jersey suburbs in search of, what else, great beer! It's going to be a fun trip as Arty reviews and rates a new stop each month as he takes the rails to the ales.....and beyond! |
| Take The Rails to The Ales to... Jersey City ------- Zeppelin Hall 88 Liberty View Drive Jersey City, NJ 07302 (201) 721-8888 Located right next to the light-rail station in Jersey City is a German style Biergarden known as Zeppelin hall. You will want to go during good weather so you can enjoy t he outdoor picnic table area.There are a lot of taps at at least 3 different bars, 2 indoor and one outdoor. Most of the taps are repeated at each bar. Although the food was not all that good we were really there for the beer. There was a fair selection, but no real home-runs to show on the highlight reel. The German beers were limited in number and most were not world class. The remainder of the taps were beers you could find at any good craft beer bar. As I said if there is nice weather it would be great to hang out in the biergarden area but I can't tell you to go just for the beer. Wish I could. For ambience and style I give Zeppelin Hall three out of five light-rail engines. ------------------------------------- Barcade 163 Newark Ave, Jersey City From the Grove Street PATH Station you will want to walk west bound on Christopher Columbus Drive toward Grove St. and turn right onto Grove. Continue on Grove Street and then turn left onto Newark Ave. Barcade will be on the right. At first you are reminded of the places we used to go in the late 70’s to late 80’s full of big video games that we dumped all our parents quarters into. This place has them all. Asteroids, Joust, Donkey Kong, Ms Pacman, WWF wrestling, and lots of other nostalgic video games to choose from. They even have Tetris..... why would anyone pay to play Tetris? I almost forgot the beer selection. All domestic micro brews are proudly served here, God Bless the USA. And there are a lot of great ones at Barcade to choose from. Fifhermans Deuley Double IPA, Navigator and Rock Porter, Founders Breakfast Stout and Centennial IPA, Victory Donnybrook Stout, Festbier, Kane Afterglow, Epic Smoked and Oaked were just a few of the examples. With all these cool games to play and a great beer selection friendly staff and great service I give Barcade the high rating of four and a half engines. ----------------------------------------------- Iron Monkey 99 Greene St, Jersey City 201-435-5756 After a few hundred games of Joust Kevin and I were able to convince Arny to stop playing Ms Pacman. We got the bartendress to cut him off. If Arny can’t get a beer he’s leaving ! We convinced him there was plenty of beer at Iron Monkey just a short walk away. We left Barcade and proceeded east down Newark Ave toward Barrow St and left onto Christopher Columbus Drive. Then right onto Greene Street. Iron Monkey is on the right. With both Imports (mostly Belgian) and great American brews, Iron Monkey has 33 really good taps to choose from like Chouffe, Lindemans, St Bernardus, and a few American-Belgian Ommegangs. My traveling partners Arty and Kevin went with the Ayinger Doublebock followed by a few from Dogfishhead. I stayed with the Chouffe and my favorite St. Bernardus ABT 12. Iron Monkey has a bottle list so long it would take a half hour just to read so forgive me for not listing the choices. This place has a huge selection of great beer. I hereby bestow on Iron Monkey the rating of Five Engines on their beer selection alone. -------------------------------------- ============== Hope you get a chance to stop in at my new restaurant in the Bradley Gardens section of Bridgewater NJ. Bring your own great beer and enjoy my great food! Neil's All American Grill, 85 Old York Road Bridgewater NJ. 908-300-8658. Chicken Specialties, Sloppy Joes, Subs, Falafels, Burgers Cheesesteaks, Salads, Vegetarian Menu, Italian Specialties and All kinds of crazy stuff. BYOB ! Stop in if you are in the area and mention you read my column! =================================== *********************************** Here's some good info on planning your own Railes To Ales trip. First step go to www.njtransit.com web site. Then click on train schedules. Next click on "use our map to plan your trip." Now select your train station on the map. And next select your destination on the map. A new page appears and you want to select weekday, holiday or weekend accordingly. A new page appears with your schedule of departing times and length of travel time. Print this up and then go to the bottom of the schedule and it will say click here for return schedule--click away. Now print this page up as well and you have all the info you need to plan your trip. Remember to allow walking and drinking time. Gotta catch my train back-- see you at my next stop! Remember to leave the car at home and......Take The Rails To The Ales !!!! Arty Hannemann |
Rails to Ales........and beyond ////////////////////////////////
by Arty Hannemann
by Arty Hannemann
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| Arty's Ratings Five engines= the very best Four engines= excellent Three engines=good Two engines= fair One engine= bad news Zero engines=stay away For Off The Rails it's Barely Sacks instead of Engines |
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