Upper Green Side

New York Beer & Wine

In addition to choosing local food, we encourage you to choose local beer and wine. The shorter the distance they travel to your table, the less fossil fuels they’ll have burned into the atmosphere. Following is some information on where you can get local beer & wine (and a note on organic wine).

Beer Info — Wine Info

Local Beer Information

For starters, Brooklyn Brewery is a well-known New York brewer, whose beers you can find pretty much anywhere in the city, and who uses wind power for energy. There’s also a list of New York breweries at BeerAdvocate (you need to have an account to view it, but registration is free), and a NYC-specific beer guide.

While Brooklyn beers are available most places in the city, other New York brews like those by Brewery Ommegang or Southampton, might be harder to come by. One UES location where some have been sighted is the 3rd Avenue Garden at 1620 3rd Ave (at 91st).

As for pubs, bars & taverns in the Upper East Side, here are a few where you may enjoy local beers:

David Copperfield’s — 1394 York Ave (at 74th St)

A restaurant-bar, with 30 taps. Occasional beer tastings. Happy Hour until 7 p.m. They “try to go local as much as possible,” and if there is anything you want to try and don’t see, they’re open to suggestion. “Our favorite local breweries are Brooklyn, Southampton, Chelsea Blue Point and Sixpoint among others.”

Becky’s — 1156 1st Ave (at 63rd St)

Close to “hospital row,” 20+ taps including some local beers like Brooklyn, Southampton, and Sixpoint

East Side Steak & Ale — 1134 1st Ave (at 62nd St)

Restaurant with a smallish bar on the ground floor serving a couple local beers including Brooklyn & Chelsea

Local Wine Information

There are a plethora or New York wineries, from Lake Erie to Long Island, and there’s a great website devoted to them, called Uncork New York, with information on the different regions, wineries, retailers and restaurants.

One popular nearby region is Long Island — in little over a quarter century the Long Island wine industry has grown from one small vineyard to 3,000 acres of vines and over thirty wineries. The Long Island Wine Country website has more information on the region, its vinyards and wineries. Some of the individual wineries’ websites, such as Gallucio, Paumanok, Peconic Bay and Sherwood House will tell you places you can buy their wines.

Unfortunately, even with sites like these devoted to New York wines and listing wine stores and restaurants, it can still be hard to find New York wines in New York City. Here are some quick tips. On the cheap side, the famous Warehouse Wines & Spirits at 735 Broadway, just off Astor Pl., has a few New York wines tucked back in a corner. In our own neighborhood, Vintage Grape at 1479 3rd Ave (btwn. 83rd & 84th) carries some New York wine, as do Mister Wright at 1593 3rd Ave (btwn. 89th & 90th) and 76 Liquors at 1473 1st Ave (btwn. 76th & 77th).

However, if you want a grand tour of New York wines, Vintage New York is your place. They’re a great resource for New York’s boutique wineries and artisan winemakers, and have been called a “temple of taste and discover” for New York wines — and you can taste it all before you buy. They have two locations: in SoHo at 482 Broome St. (corner of Wooster), and the Upper West Side at 2492 Broadway (at 93rd St).

Please check out New York wines and beers, and share your finds with us!

A Note On Organic Wine: Organic wine can be hard to find, or at least hard to find labeled as such. There are, for example, New York wineries like Shinn Estate and Lieb Cellers that use organic and/or sustainable methods, but do not market themselves as organic or sustainable. The reason why some wineries do this is discussed in a recent article in the Ithaca Times, which explains:

Part of the reason for the sluggish acceptance concerns the federal prohibitions on sulfites for organic wine. Most traditional winemakers rely on sulfites, compounds containing sulphur, to “freeze” their wines in a particular, tasty state. Without them, most wine can’t age more than a couple years without oxidizing - analogous to the rusting of metal - and leaving the wine tasting unsatisfying and looking unsightly. Many organic enthusiasts say the obsession with sulfites leads people to think that this is all the organic label implies, which perverts the holistic, earth-friendly image that should be associated with organic viticulture. As a result many wines produced from organically grown grapes, including several from the Finger Lakes, don’t even mention organic on their label.

Beyond that, the cost of switching to organic grapes is just plain high. But that doesn’t mean impossible. For more information on sulfites in wine and other organic/biodynamic wine issues, check out Appellation Wine and Spirit, a New York store on 10th Avenue between 19th and 20th Streets. They’re focused on selling organic and biodynamic wine.