New York beer bars come together in one place for Beer Bar Fest

Rather than have to go to a bunch of different beer bars on some sort of bar crawl, wouldn’t it be great if the beer bars all came together in one place? That’s the concept behind the Beer Bar Fest, coming Saturday, December 10th to The 404 Event Space (404 10th Ave., at 33rd St., Hell’s Kitchen).

Eight different beer bars in New York will be represented at the festival, pouring some of their favorite beers and pairing them with foods prepared by their staff. Among the pairings: Bronx Alehouse will offer a Short Rib Chili paired with Bronx Pale Ale, Idle Hands Bar will have sliders from That Burger paired with Oskar Blues Mama’s Lil Yella Pils, Taproom 307 will have Prosciutto Pizza paired with Victory Festbier, and Rattle-N-Hum will pair Stillwater Stateside Saison with house ground sea scallops, tiger shrimp and cod on a brioche bun.

In all, they’ll have about 15 pairings from the bars downstairs, plus a full-blown Cask Ale and Oyster festival upstairs that’ll make you go, “aw, shucks.” (Get it? Shucks? Oysters? Okay, fine, we’ll skip the puns.) They’ll also have educational seminars on beer and food pairings.

They’ll have two sessions: one in the afternoon (1-4pm), and another in the evening (6-9pm). Tickets are $35 and available on Thrillist Rewards. For $10 more, VIPs get an extra hour before it opens to everyone else, plus access to a beer pairing session and some exclusive imported kegs.

Why go to a beer festival when you can go to a beer and food festival? This time around, you can toss out those pretzel necklaces.