Midtown Happy Hour: House of Brews

If you like to eat, chances are you like to drink (read: a lot of you are freakin’ lushes), so I thought maybe the site should have a happy hour column. Every Friday we post about a different bar in Midtown that fits the Midtown Lunch mentality: unhealthy food, not lame (unless it’s lame in a cool way), and most importantly… cheap. For this week’s recommendation we’re back to Profiled Midtown Lunch’er Kate.

IMG_0527

This week I thought I’d cover a real beer lover’s bar, as that is what I drink 98% of the time. The House of Brews boasts 80 beers, domestic and imports, in a list that takes up two pages of the menu. I came here a few weeks ago for a quick beer with my coworkers and decided I needed to come back a second time to really peruse the menu. It’s a fair assortment; however, the trouble with bars that have a good selection of anything is you tend to pay for the variety. Yet at the House of Brews, prices are not too steep and their happy hour deal covers everything- so you don’t need to curtail your beer choice. But just as a warning, it does run a little more expensive than the dives we normally post about.

House of Brews is a young white-collar bar, and on any given night there will be a ton of work get-togethers going full swing. Not exactly my cup of tea but whatever. The design is a split level with two bars and has an interesting layout with long tables, booths and lots of nooks to hideout in. There are flat screens everywhere showing hockey and rugby and the jukebox is unassuming. In fact I don’t even recall a single song. Though it’s a large bar, there’s so much dark wood and furniture it gives off a relatively cozy vibe.

IMG_0543

The beer menu has quite the range. You can go cheap light and domestic for around $5 to Belgian, cherry and lambic for $18 (it is a 25 oz bottle). When my friend Maria and I sidled up to the bar I opted for the Blue Point Toasted Lager for $6, it was flavorful and rich tasting without being too heavy. Maria went in for the beer sampler of four 4oz servings of any beer on tap for $7. She had a Chelsea Raspberry Wheat (her favorite because it was super light and fruity), Check Cab Blonde Ale, Classic Bitburger, and Captain Lawrence Reserve. All very excellent in their own right, though I loved the Captain Lawrence, a delicious pale ale (I’m a sucker for the hops). Though this bar is far from the widest beer selection I’ve seen, it’s a stellar collection considering you can get a farmhouse cider, Trappist ales, porters, spiced ales and Belgian dubbles and quadruples— not to mention a beer named after a Viking. Come on, a Viking, that’s awesome.

IMG_0542

The happy hour special is $1 off any and all beers, which means you can get smashed for cheap at $4 a Bud or take a tour of the beer world and exercise those taste buds starting at a mere $5 to $6 bucks a bottle. It runs from 11am to 7pm. They also have “football specials” which take place all day Sunday and Monday and all during Happy Hour. You can get $5 Nachos, $5 Skins, and 50 cent wings. They also have beer bongs that hold 6 pints, if you’re really in the mood for some serious drinking. Basically, if you are a beer lover who can ignore a buzzed office party spilling its Cape Cod on your shoe, this place is definitely for you.

House of Brews, 363 W 46th St (btw. 8+9th), 212-245-0551

Second Location on 302 W. 51st. St. (just West of 8th Ave.) 212-541-7080

Photos and post by Kate Schruth

7 Comments

  • Be wary of this place. I went there after work with my girlfriend about a year ago and the waitress scammed us. The bill came to $170. We were just drinking beer. No food. No exotic $18 a bottle beers. I questioned the waitress and said there’s no way we drank this amount of beer. She said that I drank most of them because my girlfriend only had about 4 pints. So I said, “you mean to tell me that I had between 15-20 pints of beer in 2 hours? and I’m still upright and having this conversation with you?”. She said the bill was correct because the bartender doesn’t give her beers unless she enters them in the system. I’m not sure how that justifies it…it only justified her entering extra beer on our tab to give to the group of 8 guys at a table in the back she was fawning over for free. The manager came over and said the computer system is correct and that’s what the bill was. We’ve never been back and never will go back.

  • crazy story…hoping it’s an isolated incident even though sucks when it happens to you. i’ve been once and enjoyed the beer selection. now that CB6 closed, not too many ‘beer bars’ in midtown.

  • HOB does a lot of things right (brew selection, comfortable surroundings) but I can never get over the prices. Even with the Happy Hour discount it’s a rip. When you consider you can go to a place like The Australian and pay MUCH less in a better location with better food and a better crowd, HOB is exposed as the tourist trap it is. Too bad.

  • So this place basically has non-New York prices in NYC? Why can’t there be more like this place! Drink prices are so far out of sight…

  • Ted, do you have your head up your (redacted) … $4 Bud?!?! can I buy you some Night Train?
    sorry, back to my hot toddy……

  • HOB is a tourist trap. try bullmoose saloon on 44th st. They have a burger and beer special for $6 some days And it’s good!

  • by ‘non-new york’ Ted Bailey is actually referencing Dubai beer prices…

Leave a Reply

You must log in or register to post a comment.