This Saturday, May 28, at 12:00 noon NYC time, it’s Munster vs. Leinster in the Magners League Final 2011 at Thomond Park Stadium.

This is one of those events that is a big deal in Ireland but is hard to find on television in the United States. So whether you’re an ex-pat living here or one of the many Irish in New York City for the day, you’re likely wondering where to watch the Magners League Final in New York City.

Brickyard Gastropub will be showing the match, to an expected boisterous crowd of fans, with the cheering led by our proprietors, Ireland’s own Pat and Gavin, avid Magners League fans .

With nine giant screens and the best beer menu in NY, Brickyard Gastropub is one of the very best bars in New York City to watch the Magners League Final.

We’ll be serving our regular menu, including our new bar menu. Of course, we encourage you to wear your finest rugby shirt!

We expect  a large crowd, so call us today at 212-767-0077 or email us at info@brickyardnyc.com to reserve your table, and come early.

It’s hard to try to find quality, family-friendly restaurants in the New York City Theater District. The kids want over-priced, soulless chain restaurants that have lousy food, attract an unsavory crowd and are so cavernous that you may not even want your teen going to the bathroom alone.

At the other end of the spectrum, you can go to a five-star restaurant, but then its breaks your wallet and your kids are expected to remain quiet with their hands folded on their lap, and where’s the fun in that?

Brickyard is the perfect, kid-friendly restaurant in NYC theater district. Our kids menu offers burgers, chicken fingers and grilled cheese, with choice of fries, for $5-$6 per kid – no spending $27 on your ten-year old kid here. For the grown-ups, we offer a truly first-class dining experience, the best craft beer list in NYC, and outstanding wine and other drinks as well. (read the stellar reviews of Brickyard Gastropub on Open Table). And for every meal-time, you’ll find plenty of families with teens, young kids and even strollers having a marvelous time, without upsetting any of the other diners. In our front area, the tables are spacious, and there’s a steady din from our nine 50-inch televisions, so we don’t mind in the least the laughter of kids joining the chorus.

At 52nd & 9th Avenue, we are less than a 5 minute walk from many popular family shows. We’re one of the best family friendly restaurants near Wicked at Gershwin Theater, Jersey Boys at August Wilson Theater, Catch Me If You Can at the Neil Simon Theater, Sister Act at the Broadway Theater, and many shows at New World Stages Theater.

This Saturday, May 28, at 2:45 p.m. NYC time, FC Barcelona and Manchester United FC both seek a fourth title when they meet at new Wembley Stadium in the 2011 UEFA Champions League final.

This is one of those events that stops the clock in much of Europe, but is little noticed, and hard to find on television, in the United States. So whether you’re an ex-pat living here or one of the many European tourists in New York City for the day, you’re likely wondering where to watch the Champions League Final in New York City.

Brickyard Gastropub will be showing the match, to an expected boisterous crowd of fans. With nine giant, 50-inch screens and the best beer menu in NY, Brickyard Gastropub is one of the very best bars in New York City to watch the Champions League Final.

We’re offering two specials for $10: Fish & Chips for the ManU fans, and Camarones Ajillo for the Barcelona fans. We’ll also have Spanish sangria at $5 per glass.

We’ll also be serving our regular menu, including our new bar menu. Of course, we encourage you to wear your finest football shirt!

We expect  a large crowd, so call us today at 212-767-0077 or email us at info@brickyardnyc.com to reserve your table, and come early.

We experimented with opening early on Saturday mornings for European football fans this year and it was a great success. So next season, we’ll open every Saturday at 7:30 a.m., and serving a full Irish breakfast to Champions League fans.

There are plenty of burger joints in New York City, and a slew of styles ranging from grease bomb to haute cuisine. As for sliders – those tasty mini-burgers – they’ve also emerged as one of the city’s favorite happy hour and late night snacks.

Despite all the choices available, there’s no need to feel overwhelmed. Just come to The Brickyard. We have one of the best bar menus in Hell’s Kitchen, featuring a tempting selection of sliders that pair perfectly with pints of craft beer. We’re sure you know by now that we offer one of the best beer menus in NYC.

Our Trio of Kobe Beef Sliders features an intriguing mix of ingredients that you won’t find anywhere else in the city. The first option is simple and classic: tender Kobe beef is topped with crisp bacon, cheddar cheese and our tangy house BBQ sauce. The second Kobe beef slider perfectly combines sweet and sharp flavors, pairing caramelized onions and ketchup with New York State bleu cheese. The final slider in the trio is California-inspired: avocado, creamy goat cheese and fresh Pico de Gallo, along with a dollop of chipotle ketchup. Pico de Gallo, by the way, is just another name for fresh salsa, typically made with tomatoes, onions, jalapeno peppers and a squeeze of lime.

Since it’s springtime, we’re thrilled to have tasty lamb on the menu. Our Trio of Lamb Sliders has been earning raves from regulars as they down pints from one the best beer lists in New York City. We grind the lamb in-house before adding delicious savories. Start with the zesty, lemongrass-infused lamb slider, our nod to tasty Thai food. Next up, we mix mellow and strong flavors, topping a juicy lamb slider with lip-puckering wasabi aioli. Lastly, we top a lamb slider with shredded carrot and daikon, a peppery root vegetable that we pickle in house.

Wrap up your slider experience with a Trio of Crabcake Sliders, which are uncommonly moist and flavorful. We serve ours with a sweet and spicy mango salsa that’s as refreshing and summery as it sounds.

Since we know you appreciate great flavors and skillful cooking, we dug up this post from Paris-based chef and cookbook author David Liebovitz on how to make aioli. Enjoy, and stop by soon for some of the best sliders in NYC!

This Saturday, May 21, at 12:00 noon NYC time, it’s Northamption vs. Leinster in the 16th Heineken Cup Final 2011.

This is one of those events that stops the clock in much of Europe, but is little noticed, and hard to find on television, in the United States. So whether you’re an ex-pat living here or one of the many Irish or English in New York City for the day, you’re likely wondering where to watch the Heineken Cup Final in New York City.

Brickyard Gastropub will be showing the match, to an expected boisterous crowd of fans, with the cheering led by our proprietor, Pat Burke, an avid fan of Leinster who attended the last three Heineken Cup finals but has finally found a better place to watch one.

With nine giant screens and the best beer menu in NY, Brickyard Gastropub is one of the very best bars in New York City to watch the Heineken Cup Final.

We’ll be serving our regular menu, including our new bar menu. Of course, we encourage you to wear your finest rugby shirt!

We expect  a large crowd, so call us today at 212-767-0077 or email us at info@brickyardnyc.com to reserve your table, and come early.

As the weather warms up, we see a noticeable spike in interest in our seafood options. One item that has been immensely popular since our early days is our Prince Edward Island Mussels. At Brickyard, we keep the preparation simple: white wine, fennel and shallot, washed down with a Crispin Cider. Can you think of anything more refreshing on a warm New York City evening?

Before you answer that, consider our sources.

Minneapolis-based Crispin produces small batches of all-natural hard ciders. Fermented using fresh apple juice (never apple juice concentrate) from West Coast apples, the ciders are finished with natural sweeteners like organic honey and maple syrup. The resulting ciders are unusually rich and full, without sacrificing crispness. Crispin ciders are also gluten free, and contain no spirit alcohol or added malt.

Prince Edward Island’s are Canada’s highest produced and exported mussels. Rope-cultured by experienced local mussel growers, these delectable morsels are found inside their familiar blue-black, D-shaped shells. Prince Edward Island Mussels are “filter feeders,” which means all of their nutrition comes from their aquatic environment, resulting in a high-protein product that’s low in fat, cholesterol and sodium. Additionally, the mussels are held in suspended mesh sleeves, resulting in “cleaner shells and grit-free flesh,” according to the website of the Prince Edward Island Aquatic Industry.

Hungry yet? Our dinner menu Prince Edward Island Mussels appetizer is available now for just $12.  Hope to see you soon.

The weekend after Mother’s Day, every year since 1973, a stretch of Hells Kitchen is converted into a food lover’s paradise: the Ninth Avenue International Food Festival. For two days, Ninth Avenue is closed off to cars from 37th Street to 57th Street, allowing pedestrians to roam freely from stall to stall. This year’s festival happens on May 14 and 15, from 11 a.m.-5 p.m., rain or shine. The Brickyard will be joining the fray for the second year, since our sliders were such a huge hit in 2010.

Here’s a taste of the scene: Ninth Avenue restaurants will cook up their specialties, including an enticing array of ethnic cuisines like Ethiopian and Trinidadian food.  Local merchants will show off their wares, and a stage will feature international music and dancing.

Keep in mind that while other restaurants keep the cooking indoors, resulting in lukewarm plates, The Brickyard takes a different approach: we fire up the grill right on the street, serving sliders so piping hot and fresh you’ll feel like you’re at a family BBQ. We’ll also be presenting some dishes from our delicious new spring menu.

Here’s a preview of what to expect from the Brickyard Gastropub at the Ninth Avenue International Food Festival:

Kobe Beef Sliders
We offer three tasty topping combinations: bacon/cheddar/house BBQ sauce, caramelized onion/NY State Bleu Cheese/Ketchup, and Avocado/Goat Cheese/Pico de Gallo/Chipotle Ketchup.

Lamb Sliders
The perfect slider for spring, done three different ways: Lemon Grass-Infused lamb, Wasabi Aioli, and Pickled Daikon and Carrot.

Crabcake Sliders served with sweet and spicy mango salsa.

You won’t want to miss this event. Where else can you nosh on a turkey leg while watching a belly dancing performance, before heading into the Brickyard to cool off with a craft beer from one of the best beer menus in NYC? We look forward to seeing you for great food in Hells Kitchen at the Ninth Avenue International Food Festival next weekend.

“This Kentucky Derby, whatever it is—a race, an emotion, a turbulence, an explosion—is one of the most beautiful and violent and satisfying things I have ever experienced.”
—John Steinbeck

On the first Saturday in May, we celebrate the annual rite that is the Kentucky Derby, known as “the fastest two minutes in sports.” For the owners, a lifetime of dreams plays out as 20 horses stampede down the stretch of Churchill Downs for the first time, and then gradually separate themselves until one stands alone, wearing a blanket of roses, in the winner’s circle.

Where can you celebrate such a beautiful, violent and satisfying thing? Why, where you celebrate all things you associate with beauty, violence or satisfaction – Brickyard Gastropub. We’ll be hosting our annual, epic Kentucky Derby Party on May 7.

With nine giant screens, we’re one of the very best bars in New York City to watch the Kentucky Derby.

We will be showing the other races from Churchill Downs all day long, and serving $5 Mint Juleps as well. We’ll be serving our regular menu, including our bar menu. Of course, we encourage you to wear your finest Derby Hat!

We expect  a large crowd, so call us today at 212-767-0077 to reserve your table, and come early.

How to Bet the Kentucky Derby in New York City:

As you may know, New York City OTB closed its doors recently. The only way to legally bet on the Kentucky Derby in New York City is to go to Aqueduct Racetrack in Queens on Friday or Saturday, or to open up an account online with one of the four services we list below.

Read findingDulcinea’s “How to Pick the Winner of the Kentucky Derby” for a tutorial on how to handicap the Derby.

The four online wagering providers listed below are the most reliable sites that permit same-day funding of a new account. There are other legitimate providers, such as Autotote and ones associated with racetracks, but most do not allow same-day funding of a new account. Be wary of any other operator; they may be located offshore and may not be legally permitted to accept wagers from U.S. residents.

NYRA Rewards is operated by The New York Racing Association, which operates New York’s three major thoroughbred racing tracks; it offers free, instant accounts to residents of New York and Connecticut.

TwinSpires is managed by Churchill Downs Incorporated and offers wagering on races at Churchill Downs to all U.S. residents.

TVG is a horse racing television network that allows people in 15 states to bet online, by phone and television remote.

XpressBet offers wagering online and by phone to residents in 32 states.

If you’re hosting a Kentucky Derby Party at home, this software, Backyard Bookie, allows you to offer “parimutuel wagering,” in which the odds for each horse are determined by how much money you and your guests bet on each one. You’ll also want to serve your guests plenty of the finest craft beer on tap, so come by the Brickyard before hand and we’ll fill your growler, or sell you one of ours, with a half-gallon of anyone of our 24 craft beers on tap.

Cinco de Mayo—the Fifth of May—is a festive, lively Mexican celebration that has become increasingly popular in the United States. It is not a celebration of Mexico’s independence, which it declared from Spain on September 16, 1810,

Rather, Cinco de Mayo commemorates the victory by the forces led by Mexican General Ignacio Zaragoza’s over the French on May 5, 1862. This triumph symbolizes Mexico’s long and arduous resistance against European invaders.

As with St.Patrick’s Day, which is more of a religious holiday than a day for Bacchanalia in Ireland, Cinco de Mayo is celebrated only sporadically in Mexico. But in the U.S., it has become an opportunity for Mexican-Americans to celebrate their national pride. Never ones to stand on the sidelines, many Americans without a drop of Mexican blood also partake in this festive occasion.

At the Brickyard, we do all we can to accommodate our customers. If they want to celebrate Cinco de Mayo in a big way, then we will celebrate Cinco de Mayo in a big way.

We’ll be pouring $4 shots of Tequila,and $5 pints of Margaritas: Lemon/Lime, Blood Orange and Guava/Mango.

On our bar menu, we’ll be offering marinated pork sliders with osanta cheese. Our dinner menu will feature Fish Tacos (Tilapia) with rice and beans, guacamole and pico de gallo.

We’ll also offer our new spring/summer menu, and our usual line-up of 24 world-class beers.

This will be our second annual celebration of Cinco de Mayo. If the crowd we had last year is any indication, it promises to be a rather festive evening. Because we’ve acquired a reputation as one of the best pubs in midtown, we’d strongly suggest reservations. Please call us today at 212-767-0077 to reserve your table.