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Top 5 Bars?

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Under the title “Pub Crawl,” Men’s Fitness magazine chose “America’s five best bars for beer lovers,” a pretty audacious claim right out of the gate. Their five:

  1. Freakin’ Frog (Las Vegas, NV)
  2. The Map Room (Chicago, IL)
  3. Kennedy School’s Courtyard Restaurant (Portland, OR)
  4. Spuyten Duyvil (Brooklyn, NY)
  5. Brickskeller (Washington, DC)

I don’t know if their list was meant to be in any particular order, but this is how they were listed in the article. These would be mine, at least today. Tomorrow I might feel differently, who knows.

  1. Toronado (San Francisco, CA)
  2. Monk’s Cafe (Philadelphia, PA)
  3. Falling Rock Taphouse (Denver, CO)
  4. Horse Brass (Portland, OR)
  5. Brouwer’s (Seattle, WA)

Mine are simply in the order that they came to me as I put down the first five that came to mind. It’s been years since I’ve been to the Brickskeller, unfortunately, and that’s probably the only reason they’re not on my list. Sorry Dave, I’ve got to get out East more. As I write this, many more come to mind, but that’s the way these lists are.

 

As a bonus, they also list the “Best Micro Brews,” but at least these were chosen by Ray Daniels and Julie Bradford Johnson. This list is pretty good, if fairly safe. I like all of these breweries though, naturally I would have chosen perhaps a slightly different list. Also, a lot depends on what criteria you use as to what standards you look at in determining the “best micro brews.” What does that mean exactly? Anyway, here’s their list. I’ll have to think about what ten I’d choose.

 

  • Allagash Brewing Company
  • Brooklyn Brewery
  • Deschutes Brewery
  • Firestone Walker Brewing Company
  • New Glarus Brewing Company
  • Odell Brewing Company
  • Rogue Ales
  • Russian River Brewing Company
  • Sierra Nevada Brewing Company
  • North Coast Brewing Company

 



Comments

  1. This guy lost all credibility when he included the Vegas place. Your list pretty much matched mine, though I wish there was a way to squeeze Brick Store Pub in Decatur, GA into the list. Lists like theres are always subjective, but this one is just wrong.

  2. Let’s start negative. Freakin’ Frog would not be in my top [fill in the blank]. It is expensive and fails to take you away from Las Vegas. Which should be the goal of any bar in Vegas. Oops, I appear to be biased.

    I like your list better, Jay, although I have to figure out a way to get Rich O’s in there.

    And to the ‘Best Micro Brews’ list . . . love them all, but tell me which of the brewers listed doesn’t want to be drinking at Lost Abbey or Victory or Bell’s.

  4. Ya, we’ve been discussing the “merits’ of this Men’s Fitness list over on the Draft magazine forums (http://draftmag.com/forums/index.php?topic=60.0;topicseen). “Best of” anything lists are only good for one thing… controversy.

    I’ve been writing “The Beer Bucket List” (beer bars every beer geek must visit before they… kick the bucket) for MOJO HD (http://135.mojohd.com/tagged/confessions-of-beer-geek/) for the better part of a year now. A top 5 is impossible to make given how many great beer bars there are. All five that Jay lists is on my “The Beer Bucket List.” Two of the beer bars from the original list (The Map Room and Brickskeller) are as well; two that I can’t imagine leaving off any list (thus the reason a top 5 is really not viable).

    My two cents…

  5. Ya, we’ve been discussing the “merits’ of this Men’s Fitness list over on the Draft magazine forums (http://draftmag.com/forums/index.php?topic=60.0;topicseen). “Best of” anything lists are only good for one thing… controversy.

    I’ve been writing “The Beer Bucket List” (beer bars every beer geek must visit before they… kick the bucket) for MOJO HD (http://135.mojohd.com/tagged/confessions-of-beer-geek/) for the better part of a year now. A top 5 is impossible to make given how many great beer bars there are. All five that Jay lists is on my “The Beer Bucket List.” Two of the beer bars from the original list (The Map Room and Brickskeller) are as well; two that I can’t imagine leaving off any list (thus the reason a top 5 is really not viable).

    My two cents…

  6. I like the Beer Bucket List. Check out BeerMenus.com to help navigate your way around NYC and Brooklyn where there are a lot of great bars in addition to Spuyten Duyvil.