Enjoy a quaint British pub with homemade cask ale, classic English cocktails, a delicious pub feed and a cozy English countryside atmosphere!
📍The Shakespeare
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Starring: Amanda Gabriele Social Editors: Gianna Shayne, Zoe de Leon, & Hanna Agro
About I Know a Place New York City-based drinks writer Amanda Gabrielle fields viewer submissions of hyper-specific drinking scenarios and offers expert bar recommendations with little to no regard for trends or the whims of an algorithm — just solid advice from a person with extensive knowledge and impeccable taste.
About Amanda Gabriele Amanda's been drinking professionally and socially in New York City for nearly 15 years, so it stands to reason that people are constantly asking her where to get a drink. Her knowledge is unparalleled, she has impeccable taste, she couldn’t care less about what’s trendy at any given time, and she’d never stand in line for a drink — she’d just go to the even cooler, lesser known place around the corner. She wants a delicious drink in a nice space that fits the vibe she’s after. Whether it’s a date night martini, a neat whiskey before a show or copious amounts of wine with friends, she knows where to find it.
Here is the ask.
I want to feel like I'm in a cozy pub in the English countryside.
I know a place.
I'm Amanda Gabriel.
13 years of drinking, writing, and hunting the world's best bars has taught me one thing.
I know where you should be drinking.
Let's get to it.
All right.
Let's go.
Let's do the elderflower gin and tonic.
Got the goods.
Okay.
So one thing that the Shakespeare does, which is a little bit hard to find in the United
States, is cask ale.
Instead of the beer being stored in kegs, they're stored in casks.
It usually undergoes a secondary fermentation in the casks.
And instead of pumping CO2 in to draw the beer out, they're using a hand pump.
So it's naturally carbonated and it's served at cellar temperature, which in wine, cellar
temperature is usually like 55, like 60 degrees.
I'm not sure how much that is for the beer, but usually it's served really cold.
So this is served a little bit warmer, less carbonated.
I'm not going to lie.
I don't care for IPAs and this is definitely very bitter, but I will say I am pleasantly
surprised at the beer being served at a slightly warmer temperature.
I think it's really good.
It actually really brings out the flavors of it.
Very cool thing if you're really into beer and you like a British style of drinking.
Okay.
So my go-to drink in a pub is a gin and tonic.
Obviously a very quintessential cocktail, very simple two ingredients.
And this one they used fever tree elderflower tonic, which is absolutely delicious.
And Ford's gin, which is a London based gin.
One of my favorites.
Little dried lime wedge here.
It's perfect.
Thank you so much.
You're welcome.
There is obviously a ton of really, really great British dishes on this menu.
You have your shepherd's pie.
We're eating a Scotch egg, bangers and mash.
We love a sausage.
Excuse me, a banger.
We love a banger.
Who doesn't love a sausage?
That's delicious.
Oh my goodness.
Never dipped a Scotch egg in tartar sauce before.
I'm really excited about this.
Maybe you're coming here after work.
You're having your G&T.
You're having a little snack.
This is going to ensure that you have stamina for more beverages throughout the evening.
And maybe my favorite thing on this menu is at happy hour, they have a mini fish and chips.
So you can come in here and just get your little fish and chips snack, 12 bucks.
And on Sundays, they do do Sunday roast.
Now that is a proper drinking snack.
I gotta try this fish.
That's perfection.
That's so good.
You obviously saw me in the introduction of this video, it is freezing outside.
This place could not be warmer and more inviting.
It has this beautiful dark wood everywhere.
The lights on the ceiling kind of give that air of like an oil lamp.
You have all of these like old photographs all over the walls.
It's so cozy and so welcoming and so convivial.
Everyone's just happy to be in here.
Everyone's happy to have a drink in their hand.
Okay, so something else they have on the menu is an elderflower gimlet.
The gimlet, another super classic British cocktail.
Actually invented, I believe, in the 19th century.
The Royal Navy would put lime juice in their gin to prevent scurvy, right?
A very sailor thing to do.
And it turned into this really beautiful classic cocktail.
Way back in the day in British pubs, sometimes they were called snugs.
They could have been called snob screens.
But a lot of British pubs had these like partitioned off areas.
Maybe they were for people who were playing cards and
didn't want to disrupt the other patrons.
Maybe they were for people who were like a little snobby and elite.
And they had windows and they wanted to see the rest of the bar, but
no one could bother them.
Sometimes there may have been a little peekaboo window,
just like we see right here, where people could drink in private and
the bartender could slip beverages through the little window.
I don't know if that's exactly what the Shakespeare is trying to mimic with this
little room, but it certainly seems like they are
calling back to this classic British architecture.
The Shakespeare, it feels like you've been taken out of the city and
dropped somewhere much more quaint.
They have the Cascale, they have the gin cocktails, they have this amazing pub feed.
And this place is just awesome if you are looking for a change of pace.
