NY Barfly

Champagne-Style Beer for the Holidays

According to a recent study, 60 percent of guys prefer to raise glasses filled with beer rather than Champagne during a toast. Dudes – what’s with the aversion to a crisp glass of bubbly? Well, if you want to shirk away from anything vino for the holiday season, you can fill that flute with Infinium, a Champagne-like beer made by Sam Adams and Germany’s Weihenstephan Brewery.

The label is available for a limited time, and comes in a 750 mL champagne style bottle that’s topped with a cork. Beer lovers will also be heartened to know that the bubbly brew contains 10.3 percent alcohol, which is twice the amount of an average beer. Now, if that’s not something to toast to, we don’t know what is.

You can expect some exciting flavors in this bottle, after all, Weihenstephan is the oldest brewery in the world, so they know their hops. If you want to score a bottle and substitute it for your holiday festivities, you can look for it at your local liquor store where it will retail for around $19.99 a pop.

Sierra Nevada Takes Over Taps at Rattle N Hum - Tonight!

Midtown’s Rattle N Hum is one of our favorite, and one of the most off the radar, beer bars in the city. The spot offers an amazing selection of craft beers poured on tap and plenty of tasty cask ales as part of their rotating selection. Tonight, all of the bar’s 40 draft lines will be taken over by brews from Sierra Nevada for the brewer's 30^th Anniversary Celebration.

Are we the only ones who didn’t realize that Sierra Nevada makes 40 varieties of beer? Well, guess we have our work cut out for us when we stop by to try all the labels we haven’t sampled yet. The beer maker promises many beers that will never again be poured on the East Coast, including a Chocolate Chili Imperial Stout and an Almond Marzen Project.

If you’re looking for cask, the brewer will be on hand with 4 rare labels and numerous special bottled offerings. If you want to try some of the rare labels hit the bar early as they are available in limited quantities. The gig starts at 4 PM and Rattle N Hum is located on East 33^rd between Madison and Fifth Avenue.

Artichoke Opens in The Village / The Meatball Shop Hits The 'Burg

-Looking for a snack after bar hopping in the West Village? Artichoke Pizza is open on MacDougal Street until 5 AM. How about a slice (or, knowing how you eat when you’ve had too much to drink, how about three?).

-Speaking of tipsy eats, The Meatball Shop is coming to Williamsburg! We know you can’t wait to see how many morsels you can fit into your mouth at once.

-We know you’ve been in rehab for that bowling addiction. Well, it’s hopeless, because Bowlmor just opened 50 new lanes in Midtown. Just give up now.

Drink It Up at the Holiday Spirits Bazaar

You think you’re tired from all the parties over the Thanksgiving holidays? Ha! The true lushes know that party time (aka the month of December) is just beginning. One upcoming event will let you get some consumption in, and we’re not just talking about boozy punches. The Holiday Spirits Bazaar will (of course) feature plenty of drinks and eats to taste. Additionally, there will be books and gifts on hand to buy for your favorite imbibers.

Yes, buying things for yourself is acceptable, as we know you are one of your favorite imbibers.

The event goes down on Saturday, December 11 at The Green Building in Brooklyn. VIP admission (which starts at 4 PM, otherwise known as “lush hour”) is $25, while regular admission gets you in at 5 for $20. To take a peek at more details and work this into your holiday schedule, visit this website.

Happy Thanksgiving (and a Cocktail)

We’re off to turkey land, and will return next week with more boozy fun. Of course, we just want to say thanks for reading! If it weren’t for the countless derelicts that read the site, we’d just be writing everything on index cards and storing them in boxes in preparation for our stint on Hoarders. While it would make for a great episode, it doesn’t sound much fun at all.

We’ll leave you to your holiday shenanigans with a cocktail. This Wild Turkey concoction is like Thanksgiving in a glass. When’s the last time you had a libation that involved turkey jus and breadcrumbs? Pretty swell – right?

"Pass the Turkey" created by Master Sommelier Fred Dexheimer

1.5 oz Wild Turkey 101

2 oz apple cider

1 tbs cranberry jelly

1 sprig fresh sage

1 sprig fresh thyme

Muddle sage and thyme with apple cider.  Add ice, top with Wild Turkey and cranberry jelly.  Shake well, strain over ice in a glass rimmed with turkey jus and breadcrumbs.

A $460,000 (!) Bottle of Scotch

On Monday, November 15 the most expensive whisky ever sold was purchased for a whopping $460,000 at Sotheby’s. If anything ever deserved an “OMG”, it’s the sale of this spirit. Don’t worry – this isn’t just wanton excess. The proceeds from the sale of this rare Macallan 64-Year-Old label are all going to charity. The event was part of a tour that raised a total of $605,000 for charity: water, which will help bring clean agua to 30,250 people in need.

Not too shabby. Now – a note to whoever purchased the bottle – don’t you want to invite us over for a nip?

Ludacris Gets Into the Game With Conjure

Mark down Chris “Ludacris” Bridges as the latest celeb to get into the spirits biz with their own brand. The singer just launched Conjure Cognac. This 80 proof spirit claims to have hints of almond and hazelnuts on the nose with soft spice and hints of crème brulee on the palate. The bottle will retail for around $30, so it’s not too pricey. Good for the singer – as he really needed a change of pace after being featured in this Justin Bieber video.

Cee Lo Glimmers for Absolut

If there’s one thing that the folks behind Absolut know how to do (besides make Vodka), it’s throw a party. Last week the spirits brand was touting the release of the special edition holiday label, Absolut Glimmer. While the sauce inside is the same, the bottle spices things up with some shiny new glasswork.

And, what would any party be without a surprise performance from Cee Lo? The Lady Killer was on hand to belt out a few and (of course) enjoy some Vodka. We wonder if he’ll show up and do the same for our holiday cocktail party.

Rye Shortage / Ridiculous Theme Restos

- First bitters, now Rye! Grub Street has a look at the spirits shortage that is making cocktail lovers everywhere weep like spoiled little children.

- After the recent shenanigans Charlie Sheen pulled at Daniel, Zagat chronicled the top five most outrageous celeb freakouts. Did your favorite hot mess of a famous person make the list?

- Speaking of hot messes, be sure to check out Eater’s list of the top 10 most notorious theme restos in the city. Yes Bubba Gump, we mean you.

Club Kids Set To Open "Ironic" Stripper Joint

Every weekend we dutifully read the Style Section, and every week we want to gouge our eyes when we’re about halfway through. This week, the feature article was about the new breed of “club kid” taking over the NYC nightlife scene. We’re not sure what the new definition of “kid” is, but most of the folks they profiled are over 30.

Even though the article was filled with little annoyances (we read Bret Easton Ellis’ Glamorama, it sucked rotten), there was one interesting bit of intel. Carlos Quirarte and Matt Kliegman are full steam ahead with their remodel of the Westside Gentleman’s Club strip joint, and a new nightlife space Westway is set to open sometime next month. Sounds pretty fun, take a look:

Set to open next month, the Westway may be the first stripper joint in the city that caters to indie rockers and East Village baristas since Billy’s Topless in Chelsea closed during the Giuliani years. Indeed, the Westway owners say they want to achieve the same sort of ironic, lap dance-free, this-is-not-a-real-topless-club feel.

Our prediction – the hipsters will go crazy over this one.