We love the holidays  for many reasons. But as a sports bar, perhaps the number one reason is the distinct air of excitement that descends during college football bowl season.  What we don’t love is trudging from sports bar to sports bar in Manhattan, only to find our favorite Bowl Game on a TV buried in the corner with the sound off. Even worse? When a large group walks in and asks the bartender to change the channel. Neither of this happens at the Brickyard. We are one of the best bars for college football watch parties in New York.

The Games

We’ll be showing the full schedule of college football Bowl Games – every college football Bowl Game right through the showdown between the Auburn Tigers vs. the Oregon Ducks in the BCS Final on January 10. See the full schedule at the end of this post.

The Beer

During all Bowl Games, we’re offering $5 pints on selected craft beers to anyone wearing team attire. Here’s our Beer List, featuring brews from Ommegang, Sixpoint, Blue Point and many more. Look for other specials as well.

The Wings

Ours are anything but ordinary: very meaty, perfectly crispy with just enough spice and served with creamy New York State Bleu Cheese dressing. Take your pick of Teriyaki, Thai Chili,  Bourbon glazed or Buffalo wings, offered at half price ($6 for a dozen) during all Bowl Games for fans watching the games.

Brickyard’s irresistible wings

Groups

Got a big group of friends? Have your college bowl New York City watch party at Brickyard. Get in touch with us to reserve our back room or individual tables. You can also make smaller reservations on Open Table, and let us know what you liked about your visit. We’d love to hear from you!
Military Bowl
Dec. 29 at 2:30 pm
Maryland vs. East Carolina

Texas Bowl
Dec. 29 at 3:30 pm
Illinois vs. Baylor

Valero Alamo Bowl
Dec. 29 at 9:15 pm
Oklahoma State vs. Arizona

Armed Forces Bowl
Dec. 30 at 12:00 pm
Army vs. SMU

Pinstripe Bowl
Dec. 30 at 3:20 pm
Kansas State vs. Syracuse

Mortgage Music City Bowl
Dec. 30 at 6:40 pm
North Carolina vs. Tennessee

Bridgepoint Education Holiday Bowl
Dec. 30 at 10:00 pm
Washington vs. Nebraska

Meineke Car Care Bowl

Dec. 31 at 12:00 pm

South Florida vs. Clemson Bowl

Hyundai Sun Bowl
Dec. 31 at 2:00 pm
Miami vs. Notre Dame

AutoZone Liberty
Dec. 31 at 3:30 pm
UCF vs. Georgia

Chick-fil-A
Dec. 31 TBA
Florida State vs. South Carolina

TicketCity
Jan. 1 at 12:00 pm
Northwestern vs. Texas Tech

Outback
Jan. 1 at 1:00 pm
Penn State vs. Florida

Capital One
Jan. 1 at 1:00 pm
Michigan State vs. Alabama

Gator
Jan. 1 at 1:30 pm
Michigan vs. Mississippi State

Rose Bowl
Jan. 1 at 5:00 pm
Wisconsin vs. TCU

Tostitos Fiesta
Jan. 1 at 8:30 pm
Oklahoma vs. Connecticut

Discover Orange
Jan. 3 at 8:00 pm
Virginia Tech vs. Stanford

Allstate Sugar
Jan. 4 at 8:00 pm
Arkansas vs. Ohio State

GoDaddy.com
Jan. 6 at 8:00 pm
Miami, Ohio vs. Middle Tennessee

AT&T Cotton
Jan. 7 at 8:00 pm
Texas A&M vs. LSU

BBVA Compass
Jan. 8 at 12:00 pm
Pittsburgh vs. Kentucky

Kraft Fight Hunger
Jan. 9 at 9:00 pm
Boston College vs. Nevada

Tostitos BCS National Championship Game
Jan. 10 at 8:00 pm
Auburn vs. Oregon

Come spend a spectacular New Year’s Eve with Brickyard Gastropub.

We’re just minutes away from all the excitement, near Times Square, at 52nd St and Ninth Avenue, and we’re sure you’ll find we’re one of the best bars in New York City for New Year’s Eve.

But we won’t make you stand in a corral for hours to catch all the action.

No, we allow you to move around our restaurant and enjoy our outstanding food and drink. Or even reserve your own VIP table.

Your ticket includes:

• 5 hours of Open Bar, including a selection of our world-class Craft Beers on Tap, house wines, and well liquors;
• Party favors, and
• A Champagne Toast at midnight.

Food is not included, but our full bar menu will be available at regular prices.

We also offer reserved VIP Tables for 4.

Click here to buy tickets to our New Year’s Eve party.

http://brickyardnyc.eventbrite.com/

Have dinner with us before the party! To book a dinner reservation and enjoy our dinner menu, call us at 212-767-0077.

Our Weekend Brunch is one of the best in the city – outstanding, innovative food, without the lines or rush. On any Saturday or Sunday in January, bring your ticket or email receipt from New Years’ Eve and receive 15% of your total Brunch bill.

On Monday, January 2, 2012, the Oregon Ducks play the Wisconsin Badgers in the Rose Bowl at 5:00 pm New York time.

Brickyard Gastropub has become known as one of the best Oregon bars in NYC. We had a gigantic crowd for last year’s BCS Final, as well as many of the games this year. Thus, we will be figuratively painting the Brickyard Green & Yellow for the evening and expect a giant contingent of Ducks fans.

Every single seat at the Brickyard has a clear view of at least 5 televisions, and on January 2, almost all of them will be tuned to the BCS Championship Game, with the sound turned up loud, and a large group of Oregon Ducks fans cheering every play that goes their way. Plus, our Happy Hour will be in full effect!

And yes, there will also be quite a few renditions of the “Mighty Oregon” fight song.

The only thing missing will be the Duck and the Oregon cheerleaders, but we’ll see plenty of them on screen.

Call us now at 212-767-0077 to reserve a table.

A good friend gave a graduation speech last week in which he explained that our life is determined by a series of choices we make, which turn into habits we form, which in the aggregate profoundly affect our life.

For example, let’s say you’re leaving the New World Stages Theater and want to find a great meal or drink. You can turn right, towards the familiar environs of the Theater District – and as we warned you in a previous post, the restaurants near Times Square tend to be uninspiring franchises of national chains, with no character or local color. Or you can turn left – to the unfamiliar environs of Ninth Avenue – and find Brickyard Gastropub. Right, you find Applebees and TGI Friday, and continue your habit of waiting in line to pay too much money for bad food; left you find Brickyard, and start a new habit of eating gourmet food – our new fall menu includes Free Range Chicken Pot Pie, Pan Seared Salmon, and Frenched Pork Chop, and on our lunch menu, we can hardly make the Brickyard Club and Vegetable Baguettes fast enough – for a reasonable price, in an unrushed atmosphere. Soon, you’ll share the view of those who wrote all the reviews of Brickyard Gastropub on Open Table, 2/3 of which rate us 4 or 5 stars, using phrases such as “great little hidden gem” and “a great start to your NYC weekend.”

Sounds like the basis of a good New Year’s Resolution, right?

Any day of the year, visit the Brickyard with a ticket stub from that day’s show at New World Stages Theater and we’ll give you 10% off your check.

And yes, of course the discount applies for pre-theater dinner, too.

The New World Stages Theaters offers some terrific shows for families – such as Freckle Face Strawberry (which currently offers Discount Code FSTCE1010) a play b ased on a book by actress Julianne Moore, and Imagin Ocean and The Gazillion Bubble Show. And while we have the best beer list in NYC, we also heartily welcome families.

Call us today at 212-767-0077 to reserve your table.

“Seriously guys would I ever let you down?  Trust me they’ll love it !!”  The phone goes silent, I stood there with my phone in one frost bitten hand and a docket in the other  hand (only numb).   The Day slightly warmed by the gnarly eye of the Teamster who had just dropped off  the  “Mystery Keg”.   At this point I could lament about trusting your local and enthusiastic sales rep and the scenarios that follow, but in this particular case I was cautiously optimistic, (which was just as well as my teamster ally was two lights and one cigarette away) one good thing about frigid weather (excluding mulled wine, see below  post..) is the wait time on chilling a barrel of ale to a proper serving temperature.

Once tapped this quaff made no hesitation regards its destination… The Founders Specialty Brew Line,     Aka

 Founders Double Trouble

Once poured the visual is of glorious carbonation forming into a creamy white head. Bubbles slowly creep towards the top and it’s quite the sight.  The nose is unmistakably of grapefruit and piney hops. First taste is phenomenal and resembles just biting into fresh harvest fruits,  halted abruptly by a distintive double hop bite on the finish.  If Double IPA’s were Rollercoaster’s then Founders Double Trouble would be the Cyclone!!

For many, the Radio City Music Hall Christmas Spectacular is part of the quintessential New York City experience.

But dining nearby usually is not.

We already warned you in a previous post that the restaurants near Times Square and other tourist hot spots tend to be uninspiring franchises of national chains, with no character or local color.

But it gets worse.

Many of the restaurants near Radio City drastically raise their prices during Christmas season. They are jammed for the entire month of December – so why not raise prices, right? Ordinarily you might walk right out of a place when you open the menu and see that a hamburger and fries costs $25+ – but not if you waited 60 minutes to sit down!

What might be a smarter way to enjoy Christmas in New York? Go visit Radio City, St. Patrick’s Cathedral, the windows at Saks, and the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree. Then you’ll be tired and hungry – a perfect target for the price-gouging purveyors of mediocre fare you’ll find in the first, second and third seriously crowded restaurants you’ll find near Radio City Music Hall.

KEEP WALKING.

Walk west, three avenues, turn north two blocks, and walk right into the Brickyard Gastropub, at 52nd & Ninth Avenue – it’s 700 yards from Radio City, and you should arrive within 8 minutes, and we’ll probably have a table waiting for you – so you’ll be seating down 52 minutes earlier than you would at those places near Radio City.

Ask for Pat or Gavin, tell them you are tired, cold and hungry, but you refuse to pay double our usual prices! We’ll first warm your tired soul by telling you that we don’t raise our prices for the holiday season, and then reward you for your assertiveness by discounting your check by 10% if you have a ticket stub from the Christmas Spectacular. Aww heck, why limit such spirit to the Christmas season? Any day of the year, visit the Brickyard with a ticket stub from that day’s show at Radio City and we’ll give you 10% off your check.

You’ll then peruse our new fall menu and try to decide between the Free Range Chicken Pot Pie, Pan Seared Salmon, or Frenched Pork Chop – all for a good bit less than you’d pay for a burger and fries at those other places.

So this Christmas, let’s celebrate together a new ritual for Christmas in New York – refusing to fall prey to the price gougers near Radio City Music Hall, and instead enjoying a terrific, reasonably priced meal at one of the best restaurants in Hell’s Kitchen.

Call us today at 212-767-0077 to reserve your table.

Any lingering hopes or thoughts of a short and tempered winter have truly being dashed these last weeks. We must face the truth of it just like the arctic winds themselves. Fortunately there are many ways we can deal with the harsh bite of a wintery gust (complements of the Hudson) a good winter coat is a thought that would come to many, followed by a good pair of wooly socks, or even a pair of good old fashioned thermal under ware (back flap optional). Another novel idea is stopping by the Brickyard for a spirit warming sumptuous glass of homemade Mulled Wine, carefully cooked with the right amounts of Cinnamon, Cloves , Citrus Zest and honey slowly bought to heat in a fine red wine and a genorous pour of brandy.   A concoction that would make the coldest of hearts pine for a cold wintery day.

We recently wrote that many restaurants near Rockefeller Center dramatically raise their prices when the Christmas Tree is up, so you can wait an hour or more for the privilege of paying $28 for a mediocre hamburger and fries.  With the Brickyard a mere 8 minute walk from the tree, you can be sitting down to eat 52 minutes earlier than at those other places, enjoying our outstanding food at regular menu prices, and enjoying a 10% discount on your check if you can prove you visited the tree that day.

We set no standard for proof of a tree visit, encouraging creativity instead. Some people have risen to this challenge, while others prefer guidelines. To appease the latter group, we offer:

Ten Pieces of Evidence You Visited the Tree Today

10. The Tree.

We’ve measured carefully, and we think the base will fit neatly in our front door, if we open all the front panels. We’ll light part of the tree for heat, turning it into the mother-of-all yule logs. The top of the tree will block traffic on 9^th Avenue, and the stranded motorists will keep our place full for weeks. So if you bring the tree with you, we’ll offer the deal for everyone the whole Christmas season, because by visiting the Brickyard, you’ll de facto be visiting the tree. On the downside, we may have to remove our 24 taps of world-class craft beer to make room for the tree, so, in the interests of our craft beer devotees, a more sensible piece of evidence may be:

9. The lights from the tree.

Our customers love our understated décor, with exposed brick and bare light bulbs hanging from the ceiling. We’ve thought about making it more festive for the holidays, and five miles of lights would go a long way in that regard. On the other hand, our electric bill may skyrocket, so another possibility is that you could bring:

8. The security guard who tried to stop you from stealing the lights from the tree.

We know you are crafty enough to get away clean with the lights, but maybe instead you could just pretend to steal them, and then grab the first guard who tries to stop you, fling him over your shoulder, carry him to the Brickyard, and make him attest to your attendance at the tree. This will make derelict in his duties for a bit, so in the interests of public safety, perhaps we would accept:

7. The hat of the security guard who tied to stop you from stealing the lights from the tree.

This will go along way to proving you were in Rockefeller Center, but won’t necessarily prove you were at the tree, and tonight, so make sure the rim of the heat is soaked with perspiration, and has a fresh pine needle or two from when you wrestled the guard to the ground to get it. We don’t want to discriminate against those who lack the strength and agility to wrestle a guard to the ground, so we’ll accept in lieu of the hat:

6. A picture of your whole group trying to wrestle a guard to the ground to steal his hat.

We won’t penalize you for failing, but we can’t accept not even trying. Now we realize that some timid souls may fear it difficult to get away with any nefarious behavior near the tree, so perhaps you could instead try to nab:

5. The Ice Rink, including the Statue of Prometheus

Because the front of our pub is a spot for serious sports watching, and the back room has a quieter, more sophisticated dining vibe, we haven’t found the right spot for recreational sports. But if we came into possession of a world famous ice rink, we’ll find room for it. As for the statute, well, with a name like “Prometheus,” we think it will seriously amp up the sophistication level of the backroom. If you’re just too cowardly to try to grab an ice rink full of people, we have a much simpler alternative:

4. The Lego Model of Rockefeller Center on Display at the Lego store.

This would make a nice conversation piece on our bar, wouldn’t it? If you’re thinking about taking the easy way out by simply purchasing the necessary pieces and building it yourself, perhaps you could instead build a scale Lego model of the Brickyard Gastropub. It will get you the deal, even if it won’t prove you went to the tree tonight; for that, you might consider bringing:

3. A picture of your whole group in front of the tree, with today’s newspaper, clearly showing the date.

We needed at least one option for people whose idea of being daring is watching movies about kidnapping.

In the holiday spirit of inclusiveness, we will also offer two alternatives for people who don’t even know where the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree is:

2.     Ed Koch.

Ed Koch

This week Mayor Bloomberg announced the city was re-naming the 59^th St. Bridge in honor of Mayor Edward Koch, our favorite politician ever, who presided over this great city for 12 years. Koch was thrilled, calling the bridge a “workhorse, just like me.”  What does this have to do with visiting the tree? Nothing. But we’ve never met this giant among men, and we’d love to, so if you bring Ed Koch with you, whether walking alongside you or slung over your shoulder, you’ll get 10% off your check.

Can we be honest with you? Though we’ve offered 9 easy ways thus far, we are honestly hoping with all our heart that you choose easy way number one, which is to bring into The Brickyard Gastropub with you:

1.     Natalie Portman.

Again, you might ask, what does this have to do with visiting the tree? And again, we might reply, have you seen Natalie Portman in Black Swan, and what tree are you talking about? Bring Natalie Portman with you and you’ll most definitely get 10% off your check, and we’ll probably even buy you an after-dinner drink; anything to keep Natalie in the restaurant as long as we can.

So there you have it – ten easy, painless ways to prove you visited the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree today, and then were smart enough to avoid the tourist-trapping, price-inflating, time-wasting restaurants near Rockefeller Center, and walk a few avenues and blocks to one of the best restaurants in New York, where we not only don’t raise our prices for Christmas, but also offer a 10% discount to anyone who brings with them the tree, its lights, a guard, his hat, an ice rink, a picture of one or more of the above, Ed Koch or Natalie Portman.

Christmas has been widely celebrated in America since the early 1800s. The works of Washington Irving and Charles Dickens, and later Thomas Nast, re-defined Christmas as a peaceful family holiday. Since 1931, a large tree has been erected at Rockefeller Center each year. For many, it is part of the quintessential New York City experience. Though it can certainly be crowded at times, the NYPD always does a masterful job with crowd control, and everyone is in a joyous, holiday mood.

But let us let you in on a dirty secret.We already warned you in a previous post that the restaurants near Times Square and other tourist hot spots tend to be uninspiring franchises of national chains, with no character or local color. But it gets worse. The restaurants near Rockefeller Center have been known to drastically raise their prices – to double or more their usual price – during Christmas season. They are jammed for the entire month of December – so why not raise prices, right? Ordinarily you might walk right out of a place when you open the menu and see that a hamburger and fries costs $25+ – but not if you waited 60 minutes to sit down!

What might be a smarter way to enjoy Christmas in New York? Go visit Radio City Music Hall, St. Patrick’s Cathedral, the windows at Saks, and the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree. Then you’ll be tired, hungry and possibly cold – a perfect target for the price-gouging purveyors of mediocre fare you’ll find in the first, second and third seriously crowded restaurants you find the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree.  KEEP WALKING. Walk west, three avenues, turn north two blocks, and walk right into the Brickyard Gastropub, at 52nd & Ninth Avenue – it’s 700 yards from the tree, and you should arrive within 8 minutes, and we’ll probably have a table waiting for you – so you’ll be seating down 52 minutes earlier than you would at those places near the Christmas Tree.

Ask for Pat or Gavin, tell them you are tired, cold and hungry, but you refuse to pay double our usual prices! We’ll first warm your tired soul by telling you that we don’t raise our prices for the holiday season, and then reward you for your assertiveness by discounting your check by 10% if you can prove you visited the tree that night. What forms of proof are accepted? Be creative!

You’ll then peruse our new fall menu and try to decide between the Free Range Chicken Pot Pie, Pan Seared Salmon, or Frenched Pork Chop – all for a good bit less than you’d pay for a burger and fries at those other places, and they’ll arrive in front of you an hour earlier than they would there.

So this Christmas, let’s celebrate together a new ritual for Christmas in New York – refusing to fall prey to the price gougers near the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree, and instead enjoying a terrific, reasonably priced meal at one of the best restaurants in Hell’s Kitchen.

Call us today to reserve your table.