Guinness Week Part I: An Beal Bocht Cafe

At St. James's Gate Brewery in Dublin, barley, hops, yeast, and water are brewed together to make Guinness. This Sunday, over 13 million pints will be consumed, and as St. Patrick's Day approaches, we thought we'd devote the entire week to the beautiful elixir. So tag along as we uncover five of our favorite places to get a perfect pour.

The appreciation for Guinness reaches all corners of the globe, but it's important to note the regional differences that exist in the beverage. Irish Guinness is brewed to 6% alcohol by volume and remains unpasteurized. In the states, the two most significant differences are 1) It's lower in alcohol and 2) It's pasteurized. To allow for export, Guinness sold to North America is brewed to 3.5% and then pasteurized to ensure stability on the arduos journey across the Atlantic.

After the malted beverage arrives, it falls into the hands (and glasses) of some of the city's finest bars, pubs, and watering holes. At these locales, glassware, the pour (always in two runs), storage temperature, and the cleanliness of tap lines all play a role in what ends up in your glass. After Friday, we will have only scratched the surface, but if you happen to make it to any of our favorites Sunday or anytime after, your pour will be in good hands.

On the other side of the Broadway Bridge, at the northern most tip of Manhattan, lies a neighborhood called Marble Hill. It's part of New York's mainland so is often considered as the Bronx, but is politically part of Manhattan. If you stay on Broadway you won't officially be in the Bronx until 230th Street. That's where Kingsbridge starts. The Hudson River and Kingsbridge sandwich Riverdale, and there, on 238th Street between Waldo and Riverdale Aves, is An Beal Bocht Cafe.

A flood of Irish immigrants made their way to the Bronx after World War I. Today, of the borough's 45,000 Irish, a majority live in Riverdale, where An Beal Bocht Cafe has been serving Irish fare and one of the city's finest pints since 1992. On a recent visit, the bartender waited a solid three and a half minutes between pours. He swirled the glass a few times before finishing the pour and it helped give the pint its signature, frothy head. As you drink the Guinness, its foam head leaves rings around the inside of the glass (another sign of a good pour) and the full-bodied, rich beer carries notes of coffee and dark chocolate. A pint ($6) from An Beal Bocht Cafe is easily one of our favorites and well worth a trip on the 1 Train.

An Beal Bocht Cafe | 445 West 238th Street, Bronx | 718-884-7127 | www | map