New York in Springtime: Street Fairs and the Blind Tiger

Recently I spent a day in New York City, wandering about and hitting up some of my favorite beer bars and food spots. After stopping for a papaya juice at Gray's Papaya and a falafel at Mamouns in Greenwich Village, I stumbled upon a small street fair. One food stand caught my eye, mostly because it didn’t have all the flashy signage and yelling hawkers.

Barely noticeable amid the smoke and banners of the other food vendors a Vietnamese couple, most likely a husband and wife, were selling very fresh, very good, and very cheap food. I ended up with some pork spring rolls with Thai chile sauce.

Absolutely fantastic. They also had some pad Thai with some very good looking peanut sauce, but I was fresh off my falafel, and simply couldn’t fit any more. I did, however, have just enough room for a beer or two.

I headed down to the Blind Tiger to see what I could see. I ended up with a Speakeasy Big Daddy IPA on cask. Golden, slightly hazy, with very little carbonation. The lack of carbonation mellowed the beer considerably. Not a lot of bitterness or hop flavor. There was a bit of a soapy off flavor as well, and I don't think it was the glass. This beer was more like a pale ale, although the spring rolls I had with the Thai chile sauce may have effected that. Sure did put out the burn though! Not sure I'd get it again however. I gave it a C.

Next was a Nogne 100. Poured good and dark, with a nice dark fruit aroma to it. Some molasses and raisin, and a bit of alcohol note in the flavor. Carbonation was lively, which helped cut through a little of the body, and made it easily quaff-able. There was hop bitterness in there as well, which helped it to finish nicely dry. Dangerous for a 10% beer. I graded it a B+. There were other beers I’d wanted to try, like the six single hop Mikkeller beers that were being featured. but in order to be able to stand up properly, I had to pass.

After wandering around the Village a little longer to work off that barleywine, I hopped a subway and headed uptown to see what Rattle N Hum had to offer.