With my confusion and stupidity out of the way, I’ll cut to the chase. This place serves beer. There are 25 brews on tap, none of which are Miller Lite or Budweiser or one of those disgusting ciders. The only kind of traditional, mainstream thing on the menu that I recall is Guinness, which is just fine. In fact, a bunch of the beers are New York breweries (including the Barrier Brewing Co. Greenroom Pale Ale below) which is always a cool thing to do. The bar/restaurant itself is super-heavy on the wood features, including chairs and tables, floors, ceilings, beams and just about anything and everything in the joint. It’s like a flammable den of termite joyousness. And particularly masculine in its pub-like approach to comfort. And it has the hand-written beer chalkboards, which just brings a warmth to my heart in a way no plastic-ass menu can. The exterior, with its kind of 70s-style atrium thing, belies what’s going on inside, so don’t let it turn you off with its clunkiness.
I was here at a particular point in the afternoon when food wasn’t something I needed, but the menu looks to involve basically anything and everything to satisfy an audience of both picky (i.e. children) and those with more humble tastes. It’s made up of bar food, American comfort food and some “foreign” stuff like shishito peppers, tacos and poutine (which I’ve never really understood). They also have wings and burgers and all that kind of stuff, too, so you have your bases covered. The photos look decent, and I think I smelled some truffle fries when I was in there, so I wouldn’t shy away from bringing a group of four or six here and settling in for an evening of grub and beer.
87 2nd Ave (at E 5th St)
646/606-2384
coopersnyc.com