Blind Tiger

Greenwich Village

New York City

Bars | Restaurants

A "gallery" of craft beers - and more...

Blind Tiger interior greenwich village bar

Cuisine:

Bar Food| Comfort Food| Craft Beer Bar

Price:

Features:

Bar Scene College Crowd Great Craft Beer

About Blind Tiger

& why it made the Carpe City list

A recent Animal Planet survey placed the Tiger as the world’s favorite animal, beating man’s best friend, the dog, which came in second. A survey of beer devotees might place the Tiger, in this case, the “Blind Tiger Ale House,” as best-in-show amongst pubs!

Blind Tiger Ale House, open for 13 years with a “passion” for craft beers, shares its mission: “We see our favorite brewers as artists, and the Blind Tiger as their gallery.” And it’s working! This is one of the best beer bars in the city, serving 28 beers on tap and over 50 in the bottle. A beer list that’s “different, intriguing, and constantly evolving, like the world of craft beer itself.”

Among their ever-changing array of craft beers, they are known for their Cask Beers (one of the few bars in town to offer it) and some crazy concoction called a “Bloody Beer.” (We will let your bartender explain that one to you…) Additionally, if you like wine, they actually have more than one decent choice here, poured in festive stemless glasses. Blind Tiger also serves up a delicious food menu to compliment your beverage selection! (Note: they make a mean grilled cheese!)

Carpe City Trivia

What exactly makes a beer, a "Cask Beer?"

Cask Beers are often referred to as "Real Ale." Unfiltered and unpasteurized, they are brewed from only traditional ingredients and are allowed to mature naturally. The beer still contains live yeast, which continues conditioning the beer in the cask, known as "secondary fermentation." This process creates natural carbonation and allows malt and hop flavors to develop. The resulting product is a richer-tasting beer with quite a bit more character than your traditional keg beer. Cask Beer is not served out of a gas-pressured keg either. It is hand-pumped into your glass. Proper Cask Beer is not served warm, but cool, but it should not be ice-cold like keg beers.

Another fun factoid about this bar is in the name itself:

"Blind Tiger" is a term that dates back to Prohibition. It and the expression "Blind Pig" were names of a particular type of speakeasy. These speakeasies were a bit more lower-class establishments where alcohol was sold illegally. The proprietors of the establishments would charge an entry fee to see some sort of freak show animal, such as a blind tiger or a blind pig. Then, they would receive a "free" cocktail, thus avoiding the law of running an illegal saloon where they charged for alcohol!