Standings

StandingsStandings
StandingsStandings
Bar, Eatery

43 E 7th St
New York, New York, 10003-8011
United States

(212) 420-0671 | map
standingsbar.com
PLACE STATS
Average:
3.91
Reviews:
17
Ratings:
17
pDev:
11.51%
View: Place Reviews
Recent ratings and reviews. | Log in to view more ratings + sorting options.
Photo of Mr27
Reviewed by Mr27 from New York

4.28/5  rDev +9.5%
vibe: 4 | quality: 4 | service: 4.5 | selection: 4.5
I'm a huge sports guy but this place was a little too small. Beer selection was great and the prices weren't bad but the place was packed out and it was very hard to move at all. Too cramped for me, if I ever do go back it would have to be on an off hour. Bartender was friendly but took me a while to even get a chance to buy a drink. This is really just a small dive/sports bar with a good beer selection.
Mar 17, 2013
Photo of Rifugium
Reviewed by Rifugium from North Dakota

3.25/5  rDev -16.9%
vibe: 2.5 | quality: 3 | service: 3 | selection: 4 | food: 3.5
A cool place in the Lower East Side of Manhattan. It's basically a sportsbar; lots of crazy crap on the walls/ceiling, ok atmosphere, tends to be an annoying crowd. The kicker is there are plenty of awesome brews on tap, and free Ray's Pizza on Friday nights and for special sporting events. Not quite as diverse as the Blind Tiger, and not as atmospheric as the subterranean Jimmy's, but again, FREE Ray's Pizza. That said, the downside is, there seems to be no food there during regular hours.

This bar is directly between two other beer bars: Burp Castle, and Jimmy's No. 43. As opposed to those two, Standings has TVs and is more of a beer-bar/sports-bar hybrid, as opposed to being a straight-up beer bar like the other two mentioned.
May 03, 2011
Photo of dmgnyc
Reviewed by dmgnyc from New York

3.84/5  rDev -1.8%
vibe: 4 | quality: 3.5 | service: 4.5 | selection: 3.5
Standings is first and foremost sports bar, but one that happens to serve good beer, and with a clientele that's generally very knowledgeable about what they happen to be watching. It's not a frat bar-actual sports fans dominate the proceedings (with a slight Red Sox emphasis).

There's about 10 taps and 15 bottles, and generally a nice mix of IPAs, pilsners, and stouts, in addition to Bud and Guinness ("for the less adventuresome") because it is a sports bar after all. Last night featured a tasty Firestone IPA, Rogue Double Mocha Porter, and Otter Creek Copper Ale. Sometimes the taps get a bit random (Atwater Cherry Stout....huh?) and there'll be a glut of one style in multiple taps (i.e. four porters at once), but they change every week, which is nice, and they usually feature one brewery every ten days or so ("Lagunitas Lollapalooza" was last week). No food is served, but there's lots of free pizza every Friday night, and other free foods (cheese steaks, bratwursts, bagels on Sunday) during notable games.

Nice owner, nice bartenders, great place to watch a ballgame.
Jun 05, 2010
Photo of dudecandle
Reviewed by dudecandle from New York

3.98/5  rDev +1.8%
vibe: 4 | quality: 3.5 | service: 4.5 | selection: 4
I popped in here a couple weeks ago on a Thursday night to catch the Thursday Night Football game. It's quite small, with a wraparound bar which seats maybe 10, along with table seating for another 15 or so, I think. The place was relatively full, and a bunch of people, mostly NYU hipsters, were standing, but I still managed a place at the bar easily enough.
The only staff seemed to be the one bartender and another guy who I presumed was his boss floating around. Even though it's only the one guy serving drinks, service was prompt enough, since all they serve is beer and wine. There's no situation where the bartender is occupied for extended periods of time mixing drinks.
What I had wasn't great (Speakeasy Big Daddy IPA and Blue Point Oatmeal Stout), but I'm not going to blame the bar. They serve their $6 pints in token pint glasses. When I asked to try the Heartland Imperial Pumpkin they had on tap, the bartender very pleasantly gave me a quite generous 2-3 ounce sample, so he gets extra points for that.
16 taps and 1 cask, if I'm not mistaken, so there's a pretty good selection at any given time, usually consisting of a handful of IPA's, and then a pilsener or two, a stout, and some various, it seems.
But the main thing (secondary to the beer, of course) in Standings is the multitude of televisions, showing whatever sports are happening live. 5 or 6 televisions encompass the place, making it pretty much impossible to not be able to see one wherever you are inside. They even list next to each TV which NFL games on Sunday each one is going to show, which I thought was cool.
All in all, a nice place to hop into, especially for sports. The sound of the game will be on, so it's not a music place. Also, surprisingly, it had normal bright lighting. So catch the game, don't look for an intimate date there (Jimmy's 43 right downstairs is for that).
Nov 24, 2009
Photo of Nickls
Reviewed by Nickls from District of Columbia

4/5  rDev +2.3%
vibe: 4 | quality: 4 | service: 4 | selection: 4
(From notes)

Even though this is a beer bar devoted to sports, and more particularly baseball, I kinda dig this place. A dive-like feel with tons of sports decor, and sorta cramped but that was OK. Out of the 12 taps, only a couple devoted to macros. I actually had a couple of brews that I hadn't see out at other places in the city just yet, which was cool.

This might serve as the ultimate counterpoint to the Burp Castle next door, but still has plenty of redeeming qualities.

Definitely worth a stop especially if you are on your way to the Burp Castle, but certainly not built for a lingering session unless you're there for a game.
May 12, 2009
Photo of PlaywrightSam
Reviewed by PlaywrightSam from New York

4.36/5  rDev +11.5%
vibe: 4.5 | quality: 4.5 | service: 3.5 | selection: 5
I first went to this place on recommendation of a friend, and I've been back several times since. Last time I was there they had some great tap offerings: Stone IPA, Victory Storm King, and even Dogfish 120 minute IPA. The vibe can be a bit frat-boyish at times, but usually not to an annoying degree. I'm not much of a sports fan myself, so there have been times when I've showed up in the afternoon and the placed was packed because of whatever was on TV. But most of the time the place is perfect. Not too crowded, incredible selection, and really, really reasonable prices.
Mar 24, 2008
Photo of jamsmad
Reviewed by jamsmad from Massachusetts

4.7/5  rDev +20.2%
vibe: 5 | quality: 4.5 | service: 5 | selection: 4.5
I make a beeline for this place every time I'm in New York, it's my brothers' favorite place to have a drink and watch a game. It's hardly ever too crowded but also not empty by any means. I've been trying to find a place like it in Boston but the combination of a great beer bar, a great sports bar, a great bartender, and the fact that it's never too crowded to walk and talk easily is a rare combination. Not for everyone (not too many seats, thus the name Standings) especially those who want a place that is the "place to be" on a Friday night, but for someone looking to watch some sports, have a good conversation, and have some really good beer at the same time it's perfect. Even if some other bars have better selections I'll always make sure to come here whenever I'm in New York.
Feb 03, 2008
Photo of BeerHonky
Reviewed by BeerHonky from New York

3.93/5  rDev +0.5%
vibe: 4.5 | quality: 4 | service: 4 | selection: 3.5
Standings is named very appropriately. You won't find too many places to sit here unless its not very crowded. Now, as far as atmosphere goes, you have to remember what kind of bar this is. Its a sports bar. And I have to say its probably the coolest sports bar I've been in in NYC. Tons of sports paraphernalia on the walls and even lots of old beer cans line the edges of the walls close to the ceiling. Good beer selection for a sports bar too. They had what looked to be around ten or twelve taps. Two we reserved for Guiness and Bud Light. The rest were for craft beers. Being there with some friends, I ordered one of their "Mega Pitchers" (72 oz) of the Abita Bock for 20 bucks. Not a bad deal for NYC. Definitely keeping this on one the map when I'm nearby and need a quickie.
Feb 26, 2007
Photo of mcallister
Reviewed by mcallister from Ohio

4.08/5  rDev +4.3%
vibe: 3.5 | quality: 4 | service: 4.5 | selection: 4
While visiting my sister in NYC I had to get too a bar to watch the OSU game. On top of that it had too be a bar with ESPN-U since ESPN is screwing customers and a bar with good beer. That is where Standing comes into play.

The game started at noon and after calling too verify the game would be shown and told the place would be packed we arrived around 11:00. Ooops Standing doesn't open until 12:00. So after an hour of walking, waiting, and discovering a cool as pub (see Mcsorley's) we were in Standings, and the only people there.

The bartender was very friendly and seemed too have some knowledge of the brews. My being from Ohio I was only interested in beers I can't get in my state. Standing had around 10-12 taps (can't remember exactly) and only 3 beers I didn't have access too. So naturally I sampled those 3. The 3 were Chelsea Hop Harvest Ale, a Magic Hat brew, and I can't remeber the other. They had three different Victory beers on, Southampton pumpkin, Guinness, Bud Light, and a few others.

I was expecting Standings to be a decent sized bar considering they have 7 TV's to watch games on. Instead it is called Standings for a reason. There are only a few tables and bar stools and when the place get's busy I think it's easy to find yourself standing.

No food is made at the establishment yet they have a plethora of different menus of local places that will deliver food.
Oct 22, 2006
Photo of bjohnson
Reviewed by bjohnson from Massachusetts

4.14/5  rDev +5.9%
vibe: 4 | quality: 4 | service: 4.5 | selection: 4
Me a friend were looking for the Burp Castle, but didn't realize it opened at 4 and decided to stop on in this place as the door was open and the music was playing. Naturally it was 2:30PM on a Saturday so the bar was EMPTY. Empty? yeah, I thought that was weird also. The bar tender was on the phone and something on ESPN was being shown on the 7 tv's in the bar. Nice looking place with lots of sports related garb. Flags, pennants, stickers, etc. cover the walls and ceilings. An old train can be seen chugging around the place pretty high up on the wall--Really like this feature.

The bar is not huge, but had about 10 chairs with lots of standing area behind and on the side, although the place isn't huge by any stretch of the imagination. The all dark wood bar has ornate carvings or engravings leading me to believe it could have once been a pharmacy. About 20 seats at tables--mind you the tables are for beer only as this place doesn't serve food, but will allow you to ORDER IN! I've never heard of this before, but I think it's a NYC thing. Great feature.

Now for the beer...12 taps, 1 bud, 1 guiness, the rest included Blue Point Blueberry, Hoptical Illusion, Toasted Lager and Summer Ale; Rogue Choc. Stout (which I had); Magic Hat Circus Boy, Flying Dog Pale, Sierra IPA, DFH Aprihop, and Brooklyn Pilsener. Pretty decent selection of bottles also with highlights from Smutty, Stoudts, Victory, Southampton, Rogue, Abita, Geary's, Goose Island, Lagunitas, Middle Ages, Stone....you get the point. Prety decent selection.

This place seems like it would be rocking for a sporting event. Apparently it's a "red sox/mets bar". The bartender was talkative and informative--He was even drinking with us as my buddy got "the sampler"--6 tastings for $8. Rogue Choc. Stout on tap is phenomenal. The owner apparently changes the selection quite frequently. On certain game nights there are deals, such as free pizza on Friday Red Sox night, etc. Reasonably priced beers at $5-6 per pint. The bartender, Ben, was generous with tastings.

All in all a pretty decent place to hit if you're in the East Village and want to catch a game. I'm glad my buddy lives around the corner from this place as I'll be going back.
Aug 28, 2006
Photo of StonyB
Reviewed by StonyB from New Jersey

3.93/5  rDev +0.5%
vibe: 4.5 | quality: 4 | service: 4 | selection: 3.5 | food: 4
It seems like there are so few sports bars that offer good beer. So it was a nice surprise to find one in the East Village...

Standings may be familiar to some of you...it was formerly known as Brewsky's, on the same block as Burp Castle, Jimmy's and McSorley's...7th St. between 2nd and 3rd Ave. in Manhattan.

Standings attempts, and largely succeeds, at creating its own niche. The space is very small for a sports bar, so it can get crowded, but with 7 TV's showing different games from various sports, there's always a buzz in the room, cheers and boos, intense conversation about sports - baseball in particular.

The beer? Not a fantastic selection, but better than many. 12 taps - 1 Bud Lite, 1 Guinness, the rest craft beer. I had a Stone IPA, Stoudt's Mai Bock, Smuttynose Brown, and a couple of Red Tail Ales on my visit this past Friday...Standings also has about 30-40 bottles, decent selection. Pricing on the bottles was pretty good, many available for $5, however, all taps aside from the aforementioned Bud Lite and Guinness ($5) were $6 each...NYC notwithstanding, a little pricey.

Service was above average. One of their main bartenders, Mike, was attentive and friendly...he's also a HUGE Red Sox fan. Which reminds me; any transplanted Bosox fans living in or near Manhattan, this is your little slice of heaven. Standings shows all Red Sox games, and has a very loyal segment of customers who are die-hard fans...local teams are represented too, of course.

In regards to my food rating...Standings doesn't serve food on a regular basis. However, they currently offer free Chicken Wings Sunday and Monday night, free Pizza on Friday nights, and free Bagels with the works on weekend afternoons...I had some pizza and it was tasty...

If you're a fan of both good beer and sports, stop by Standings...it's a fun place to watch your favorite team play while drinking good beer and meeting other like-minded souls...

**Stony's Biscuit** - If you're looking for a better selection of quality beer than Standings offers while watching the game, you're in luck. The bar resides right next door to the famous Burp Castle, home of many fine and distinctive beers, especially Belgians. And in fact, the two bars are under the same ownership. From a reputable source...if you ask politely, you can buy a beer from Burp Castle and walk it back over to Standings...enjoy.
May 08, 2006
Photo of Hibernator
Reviewed by Hibernator from Massachusetts

3.64/5  rDev -6.9%
vibe: 3.5 | quality: 3.5 | service: 3.5 | selection: 4
It only made sense to check out Standings after stopping by Jimmy's & McSorley's. All three places (and Burp Castle) are located on the same block, which is pretty incredible if you think about it. Anyways, on to the review…

I had been here when it was Brewsky’s and not all that much has changed. The extensive and noteworthy beer can collection still decorates the top of the walls. The major addition and focus is now on sports. Tons and tons of flatsceen TV’s cover the walls. Sport team memorabilia is all over the place. I also noticed a chalkboard with the standings of different MLB teams. During our visit the Red Sox, Mets and Yankees games were on.

As far as beer selection goes, you can expect around a dozen taps. The selection during my visit pretty good, but nothing worth truly noting. Beers like Harpoon Kellerbier, Harpoon IPA, Seadog Blueberry Wheat, Blue Heron Pale Ale and Rogue Mocha Porter were among the highlights.

Service interaction was minimal and limited, but no complaints. Not a bad place to watch a game and throw back some good beers. I noticed a Dogfish Head and pizza night coming up, which looked cool. It appears that they rotate their taps regularly, so worth checking out if in the neighborhood.
Apr 15, 2006
Photo of rousee
Reviewed by rousee from Massachusetts

4.08/5  rDev +4.3%
vibe: 3.5 | quality: 4 | service: 4 | selection: 4.5
Nice little sports bar in the E. Village. This place used to be called Brewskis and I like it much better now than before. It always had a decent selection of beers but it seems like it has improved. They had Sixpoint brown, Lagunitas Red Rocket ale, some Stoudt's, and a bunch of other tasty offerings. Its not as divey as it used to be either.

There were several nice TVs for watching sports and it seeemed like each TV was capable of having a different channel from the one next to it. They do have a happy hour during the week where the beers are either $1 or $2 off of the $6 that they are charging for most of them. Still not what you would call cheap but we are in NYC after all. They also do some free food offerings. When I was there, they had complimentary bagels with various flavors of cream cheese and apple butter and jelly and stuff like that.Quite a nice touch. The service was quick and friendly. The guy let me have some half pints too so I could try more beers. A solid little neighborhood sports bar-recommended.
Jan 21, 2006
Photo of goodbyeohio
Reviewed by goodbyeohio from Connecticut

4.24/5  rDev +8.4%
vibe: 3.5 | quality: 4.5 | service: 4 | selection: 4.5
happened in here because burp castle was closed, and hey- it's next door and open.you walk in through a grungy mini-hallway into the bar, a varitable closet filled with sports memorabilia. old pennants tacked to the wall and canvas banners touting UC Berkeley and UCONN sports teams. an electric train runs two feet below the ceiling around the bar's perimeter, just below a wonderful collection of vintage bottles and cans. small is an understatement.. this place probably seats 15 and has room for an additional 10 on the barstools and with standing room. woody and somewhat dingy overall. doesn't have a nyc vibe at all, more of a hometown joint. if it wasn't the size of my bathroom, it would fit into rural ct nicely.

this bar is sports oriented, with more tv's than necessary for the small space. a chalkboard shows league "standings". a cool feature is 'game nights,' where one game will be advertised and beers from that team's region served (ex: upcoming patriots party with $4 pints from harpoon and shipyard taps!). you can also arrange to set up your own party for your favorite team (at a price, im sure)...

tiny bar has 12 solid taps. $6/pints for all the top shelf macros (blue point oatmeal, white hawk ipa, bear republic red rocket, lagunitas pils, river horse special ale, etc.) and $5 for guinness. expensive, yes, but offset by the afternoon specials. $1 off all pints before 3pm, and free eggs, bacon, h&h bagels and cream cheese presented in a buffet spread. i understand they offer bottles, and everyone in the place except me and allie were drinking original sin 12oz'ers. however, with a thoughtful selection like this i won't venture into the fridges.

if i lived in the area, and was really into sports, i'd hang here constantly... probably the best sports bar i've ever been to. the service was friendly and the people were laid back.. can't really say much bad about this place except it probably becomes a sardine can on sundays. if i'm in the area again, and need a tasty micro pint, i'll stop in without hesitation.
Dec 11, 2005
Photo of BillyB
Reviewed by BillyB from New Jersey

2.68/5  rDev -31.5%
vibe: 1.5 | quality: 3 | service: 1.5 | selection: 4
This was a small bar with giant TV's on the walls playing all kinds of sports. They had a decent selection of taps; I tried the Sixpoint East Coast Amber and the Bear Republic Red Rocket Ale. They also had River Horse, Penn and Blue Point on tap.
The service was really bad. A kid just sat behind the bar and read the paper. I asked a couple questions about the beers and he was pretty hostile. Didn't even look up from his paper, just grunted at me. He picked the wrong line of work for his personality. I'll definitely skip this place next time.
Dec 07, 2005
Photo of Billolick
Reviewed by Billolick from New York

3.5/5  rDev -10.5%
vibe: 3.5 | quality: 3.5 | service: 3.5 | selection: 3.5
The best thing I can say about this east village spot is that its worth stopping in for a brew If your'e doing a crawl of the usual neighborhood spots, or perhaps if your cable is on the fritz and you want to watch that big mets playoff game (wait till next year) Besides those times, this place is a mediocre to OK spot, its small, not that comfortable and the beer is ehh, That sort of play lip service to really doing the beer in a BA friendly manner, glasses, fresh lines etc, can be spotty. Also the pricing seems out of wack to a certain extent, for some reason, a beer or two will be 2-3 bucks more then you would expect. Better to hit the Tiger or DBA for more BA worthy suds.
Oct 13, 2005
Photo of slander
Reviewed by slander from New York

3.78/5  rDev -3.3%
vibe: 3.5 | quality: 3.5 | service: 3.5 | selection: 4.5
Can't get caught up in the what was, 'cause it ain't no more. Does you no good anyway. The names change, the themes, the decor, the taps, the bottles, the crowd, you lose one, you gain one, this is our everchanging beer scene...
It's a small room with about a half dozen tables and a small "L" shaped bar seating a half dozen. They've gone all sports bar, meaning that the walls are no longer covered with framed fake autographed photos of music, TV and movie stars, but rather with baseball & football placards, flags and pennants. 5 flatscreens throughout for watching the games, plus a large blackboard with MLB standings. The little train that runs around the room on a track above didn't move, and I don't know when the last time it has.
A dozen taps over 4 towers. A good mix of local (Southampton Secret Ale, Sixpoint Bengali IPA & East Coast Amber), regional (Smuttynose Lager, Penn Pilsner & Weizen, Yuengling), beyond (Avery IPA, Bear Republic Red Rocket Ale, Anchor Old Foghorn, Abita Purple Haze) and Guinness. Roughly 2 dozen bottles, remnants of a once lengthy bottled list that former tenant Brewsky's used to share with neighbor Burp Castle in their common beer cellar. Bottled list was solid (Arrogant Bastard, Goose Island Honkers Ale, Bear Republic Hop Rod Rye, Southampton Double White, Middle Ages Wailing Wench, Sierra Nevada Stout, Geary's Pale Ale, Otter Creek Stovepipe Porter, Victory Golden Monkey & Whirlwind Wit, Magic Hat Hocus Pocus, Harpoon IPA, Smuttynose Old Brown Dog & Robust Porter, Boulder Hazed & Infused, Rogue Brutal Bitter & Honey Cream Ale, Wolavers IPA, Stoudts Gold Lager, Abita Purple Haze, and a few more).
Service was okay, not too terribly beerwise, and the place was a bit pricey, although nothing in the city should ever surprise you. Not first place in my standings but sturdy overall.
Oct 11, 2005
Standings in New York, NY
Place rating: 3.91 out of 5 with 17 ratings