Mug's Ale House

Mugs Ale House lacked any pretension whatsoever, as Good Beer Hunting put it, even though its beer list was actually quite pretentious¹. Ed Berestecki opened it in Williamsburg in 1992, one of the seminal New York beer bars¹. Our old listing noted the other half of the appeal: the beer was ultra-cheap.

Among its famous events was Split Thy Skull, an annual festival of barleywine and other big beers, so beloved that one regular remembers a man who flew in from England every year for it¹.

Mugs closed in June 2019 after 27 years at 125 Bedford Ave.². A 2021 report on its return floated a new name, presumably after one of its owners, Meghan Joye, who with Diarmuid Joye owns a number of Manhattan bars². It officially reopened in June 2022 as Mugs Ale House all the same, almost three years after closing³.

The team from the 11th St. Bar reimagined it, and the site bills it as the quintessential neighborhood corner bar in the Williamsburg/Greenpoint area, still at 125 Bedford Ave.⁴. Happy hour runs from noon till six, Monday through Friday⁴.