Dogfish Head Night at Barcade Jersey City

This past Thursday night, the Jersey City incarnation of Barcade hosted Dogfish Head Night with craft beer rockstar Sam Calagione in attendance. As you can imagine, this event was packed to the gills with beer aficionados of all varieties hoping to be able to share a toast with the man behind the fish.



Barcade brought out some fine Dogfish beers from their stash for this event including 2009 Fort, 2009 Burton Baton and 2009 Theobroma. Not to mention the always crowd-pleasing 120 Minute IPA and the brand-new limited offering Noble Rot, a near fifty-fifty mix of beer & wine and my favorite of the night. Unfortunately for some who came later in the night, kegs were kicking as early as 7:30pm including the Noble Rot and 120. People drink good beer quickly? Shocker.



The New Jersey Craft Beer crew get a photo with the maven himself. (L to R: Brian, Os, some dude named Sam, Marek, Heather, Dan, myself)



Sam made a brief but impassioned speech about raising our glasses to all of the craft brewers out there that have made nights like that possible. He's really quite the wordsmith and you can see why he's attained the rock star status that he has. Plus, the beers are pretty fine.

Barcade Crawl

This past Saturday, some friends and I decided to do something a little crazy. Go to all three Barcade locations (Philadelphia, Jersey City and Brooklyn) in one day. This all came about after I visited Barcade Philly for the first time a few weeks ago and realized it wouldn't be very hard to go to both the Philly and Jersey City locations in one afternoon. After describing my trip and my thought to one Chris O' Leary of Brew York, New York, the gears in his head were immediately turning. A few days later and Chris had already set up a Facebook Event and planned out a whole route entirely utilizing mass transit. Uh oh, we were really doing this.

Chris already has a great recap on his site, so I won't go into it here. But we made it to Jersey City just after 5:00 and Brooklyn at around 9:00. Not too bad really. Obviously Philly was the long haul, but still worth it as it's a great venue. Here are a few photos to add to the mix:


They have a smoker. This means already amazing food is actually smoked amazing food.

If you like this idea but don't feel like taking mass transit, you're in luck. This Saturday 12/10, Barcade and Sixpoint are joining forces for a Barcade Crawl by BUS! A $100 ticket gets you transportation round trip from Brooklyn to all 3 Barcades, 5 oz. pours of all 10 exclusive Sixpoint beers at each location AND food in Philly. That's a pretty great deal AND all proceeds are going to charity. Do it!

Victory Prima Pils

Today's entry is in honor of Victory Beer Night at Barcade Jersey City tonight which I'll be attending (as will a certain co-founder named Bill Covalesky). This beertography comes from the awesome beer blog It's Just The Booze Dancing and features Victory Prima Pils. While I'm excited to have some great Victory beers on tap tonight, this only reminds me that it is a sin that I have yet to visit Victory in Downingtown, PA. This must be remedied sooner than later, as Victory makes some great beers.

Make sure you visit Booze Dancing and check out their excellent beertography and beer reviews.

If you would like to have your photos featured on the site, please email them to beertography@gmail.com. Or if you're on the go, you can tag your tweet with #beertography and/or mention me @beertography.

Barcade Philadelphia: Now Open!

There are now three (count 'em, 3) Barcades in existence. The original in Williamsburg, Brooklyn just celebrated its 7th Anniversary, Barcade Jersey City just opened its doors this past April and now we have Barcade Philadelphia located in the city's Fishtown section.





For those familiar with Barcade's other two locations, you'll certainly see some similarities upon entering the latest incarnation. One major difference here in Philly is the brickwork throughout the bar. It gives the place way more of a old-school feel to go along with the vintage arcade games.



It already feels like this place has been around forever and it's only been open two weeks.



Founders Breakfast Stout at 12pm on a Sunday? Sure!



One huge plus about this Barcade is its high-top seating. If you find your friends but there's not a seat for you, you can still chat at eye-level. It sounds silly but it makes a difference.



This is a shot looking from the game area back at the bar. the bar actually curves around as you can see, and the part in the foreground is where you pick up your food order. Nice little touch.



There are some amazing games here in Fishtown. I chose to play a little Double Dragon which I don't think I've ever seen in an arcade. Oh, and of course, every Barcade MUST have a Tapper.



Another unique part about the Philly location is the outdoor seating area. Nothing fancy, but a nice space to hang out and get some fresh air while drinking your beer.



There's also a small roped section for smoking.



Speaking of smoking, here's the good kind! Barcade Philly smokes their own sausages and bacon. I think I need to repeat that. Barcade Philly smokes their own sausages and bacon. It smelled AMAZING and if I hadn't come directly from brunch I would have definitely got some.

So there you have it! If you're ever in Philly, check it out. It took me exactly 90 minutes to drive between the Philly and Jersey City locations....hmm...who will be the first person to visit all 3 Barcades in 1 day?

1114 Frankford Avenue (between Girard Avenue and the Delaware Expressway)
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
215-634-4400

Beertography of the Day - August 24th

Today's photo comes to us from frequent contributor Jesse Caldwell aka @jcshithead and features New Holland Farmhouse Hatter Belgian IPA from Barcade Jersey City's recent New Holland Night.

Don't forget, I'll be posting 1 photo submission per day followed by a poll at end of the week to determine everyone's favorite. That photo will then be crowned Beertography of the Week.

Would you like to have your photos featured on the site? Email your beertography to beertography@gmail.com or you can just tag your tweet with #beertography and/or mention me @beertography.

Barcade Jersey City Grand Pre-Opening Party

Barcade Jersey City may be opening officially to the public on Friday, but we were lucky enough to be invited to attend Grand Pre-Opening to give the new place a test-run. Here is some pre-beertography for you all to enjoy. Be sure to go check Barcade out for yourselves this weekend. I know I'll be back sooner than later.



If you're familiar with the Brooklyn location, you practically already know the JC location. The design is much the same, and why shouldn't it be? If it ain't broke..

Beer highlights included Firestone Walker Reserve Porter, Flying Fish Exit 9, Climax 13th Anniversary Barleywine, Weyerbacher IPA Project and many, many more...



Nice sized crowd and a lot of familiar faces from the Brooklyn digs. Not to mention the NJ beer crowd. Worlds collide.



That's a table game of Pong in the foreground. Its not working right now, but hopefully will be soon.



The awesomely open front of the bar. A lot of the windows open as well. Should make for excellent Summer evening drinking.



Barcade JC has food! Here's the little portal to the kitchen area. The chefs last night were preparing small bread, cheese and pickle plates along with some deviled eggs and other small bites. No word on whether or not they'd be actual menu items or not.



L to R: Yards "Love" Nitro Stout, Allagash Victoria

Barcade Jersey City: Open Next Week!

Well kids, the time has finally come. Barcade's Jersey City location is finally opening. For those unfamiliar with the original Williamsburg, Brooklyn establishment, you're in for a real treat. Barcade is just what it sounds like: Bar + Arcade. The twist being that all of the beer is craft beer and the games are all cabinets from the 1970s and 1980s only. So don't expect to be drinking a Budweiser while playing some Mortal Kombat. Here you'll be drinking high-quality brews and playing vintage video games.



FACTS
------
- 163 Newark Avenue at Barrow St.
- nearly 30 games from the 1970s and 1980s, no pinball
- 24 taps, 1 cask - all American Craft Beer
- bigger space than Barcade Brooklyn
- 12pm-2am Sun-Thurs, 12pm-3am Fri-Sat
- food will be served but none of it will require utensils
- eventually outdoor seating will be available
- some beers exclusive to NJ, not available in NY like NJ Beer Co. and Flying Fish
- no TVs
- beer events will happen, possibly Thursdays (same as Brooklyn location)



The Game List: Tapper, Galaga, Defender, Millipede, Mr. Do, Donkey Kong, Ms. Pac Man, Mappy, Burgertime, Tempest, Cosmic Alien, QBert, Asteroids, Tetris, Arkanoid, Spy Hunter, Zaxxon, Frogger, Mouse Trap, Joust, Star Wars, Tutankham, Sinistar (this is give or take a few, due to repairs).



As you can see, with the slightly bigger space they're able to have some cockpit-style games like Star Wars and Turbo OutRun.





Well, there you have it! Barcade JC should be open some time next week, so hope to see some or ALL of you there. Big thanks to Paul for letting me check out the new space.

Barcade Jersey City - March 29th Update

Barcade Jersey City just posted the following on their facebook page:

Dear friends,

We were very close to being ready to open but we were told to add some additional sprinklers. Consequently, our architectural plans and calculations need to be re-drawn and then approved by the city, which takes time. Hope to resolve this setback soon.

Barcade

 Here's to hoping that they can get this resolved and open soon!