Best bar or eatery within walking distance of Madison Square Garden

Hi Tikk,

The best beer bars in the area are Rattle N Hum, which is on 33rd and 5th, and the Gingerman Tavern, which is a couple more blocks away. Both serve decent food.

Enjoy!

 

I'd go Ginger before Rattle (I'll be at Ginger before the game). If you can wait til you go into the game to get food there's a fantastic burger stand that also serves Sixpoint, Bronx, and Ommegang inside the arena. Gingerman is more apps than Rattle. Both have very small menus, but those are your options for good beer right by the arena.

 

Sbarro on 33rd and 7th

 

Ginger and Rattle can get very crowded before concerts at MSG due to happy hour crowds, not sure how they are before games... Stout halfway down 33rd street has some decent food, is much bigger and some nice craft beers, it may be a better spot.

 

Stout will be PACKED before the Rangers game. As a lot of people also go there just to watch the game. I've definitely had better luck at Ginger beforehand.

 

I've ended up at the Beer Authority a few times lately and enjoyed it. Slightly cheesy sports bar feel, but a fairly solid tap list and the food is good. Probably about a ten minute walk up on 8th.

cheers

 

Pick the nearby bar with the beers you want the most..
http://www.beermenus.com/places/443-rattle-n-hum
http://www.beermenus.com/places/4418-beer-authority
http://www.gingerman-ny.com/content/view/31/108/
Then pray you can get a table. But if you go before 5pm you should be ok.

FYI: Beer Authority takes reservations, and has pretty awesome food.
http://www.opentable.com/beer-authority

 

True but there is much more room than Ginger, to get a table they would be need to get there earlier (5ish as mentioned)

 

Very very true.

 

+1 to the Beer Authority rec. The beer list isn't necessarily on the level of Ginger or Rattle, but there are always a bunch of good-very good options and most importantly from my perspective I've never had trouble getting a table. And the food is solid. If an awesome tap list is your first priority go Ginger or Rattle, but if you want a slightly quieter, chiller vibe to comfortably eat dinner and have a few beers I prefer Beer Authority.

 

I think Beer Authority is on the same level as Rattle (they should be considering same owners) but neither is as good as Ginger's selection/pricing. Some of the prices at Rattle/BA are flat out laughable.

 

Agreed on the occasional pricing hiccups, Ginger definitely tends to be better.

As for the selection, I think thy're intended for different audiences. Rattle is intended as more of a hardcore beer bar whereas Beer Authroity is going for more of a restaurant/sports bar concept that also has good beer. The Beer Authority list includes Bud Light, Yuengling Light, Stella, and Hoegaarden. I don't think you're likely to ever see any of those at Rattle. It also includes a heavy emphasis on "entry-level craft" (for lack of a better term): Pales, IPAs, lagers and wheat beers. Nothing wrong with that, there's beers in all of those categories on the list that I could drink damn near every day of my life. Rattle despite the shorter list tends to have more things I haven't tried before and if all I'm interested in is a beer I'd be more likely to go there. Just my $.02.

 

Fuck the Bruins

 

Oh come on..a Boston native cant take a little ribbing when it comes to NY v Boston sports??