"dba" news and stories

The Good Beer Seal of approval. Photo: goodbeerseal.com.

Earlier today, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg officially proclaimed July to be "Good Beer Month." The declaration came at the request of a local collective known as "the Good Beer Seal."

Founded earlier this year by bar owners Garry Gillis (Burp Castle and Standings), Ray Deter (d.b.a.) and Jimmy Carbone (Jimmy's No. 43), the group strives to "recognize establishments that pride themselves on serving quality, craft beers." With only 15 recognized bars in a city of more than 8 million people, the Seal has yet to become the definitive icon for the city's best spots for suds, but Carbone admits things are still getting off the ground. "We really didn't expect the mayor to make the proclamation," he humbly admits.

For a nascent organization, receiving a mayoral decree after simply writing him a "nice letter" is quite a feat. Carbone believes GBS's support of programs for sustainable food and insistence that members have an "active community presence" was an important factor. "A lot of bars don't make such a good community impact," he told us.

A weekly look at the draft selection at beer-friendly bars across the country.

Wow. Haven't gotten a blog up in awhile: The holiday really wore me down. I was in Seattle for just 4 days and 3 nights (of which the Thanksgiving Day holiday was spent entirely inside a house) and still managed to hit up two breweries/brewpubs (Redhook and Pyramid), two wineries (Chateau Ste. Michelle and Novelty Hill/Januik) and a wine-centric restaurant (eh, we'll leave that one up to the imagination).

My flight lands in Newark just before midnight on Saturday, and shortly after 1am I find myself in d.b.a. on 1st Avenue in Manhattan. If you're worried I might have a problem, don't fret, I had a friend in town from down south and going to d.b.a. was my only chance to catch him before he flew home.

But it was also a great chance to see what d.b.a. had on tap. After the jump, see d.b.a.'s draft list from Saturday, November 29th...