Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

Great calls on this Top 10 list...the Cigar City Guava Grove was rockin' this sour ale profile that was amazing and their peach IPA killed it!

-the Phaival Homebrew from the Bierkraft team (a quad American ale brewed w/ sour cherries & molasses in a baby bourbon barrel) was as different and complex (both in a good way) as anything i tasted over the two days

-the Lees J.W. barleywine was insanely good! crazy, funkiness going on there.

-the Bruery Mischief was chock full o' hoppy golden deliciousness

-totally agree with the Stone Smoke Porter w/ Vanilla Beans

-loved the Greenport Harbor (drink local!) Hopnami

-Oskar Blues spiced yellow pils had this spicy citrus thing that worked well

-Sixpoint Missionary was their take on a uber-hoppy West Coast IPA and didn't disappoint...put it up there w/ Racer 5 and Green Flash w Coast

I agree -- the post title makes no sense to me. "Raising the Bar" implies that it sets a new standard for gastropubs. Also, before the jump, it says "what redeemed the meal...", but then it goes on to describe a Waldorf salad that was "even less spectacular." Not to be critical, and god only knows my writing needs some serious work, but I think this needs some editing.

that looks absolutely NOTHING like the burger I had there about 5 weeks ago. not even close. i ordered mine med-rare (as always) and it came out more medium and the beef blend/flavor was not memorable at all. i'm guessing they changed meat purveyor in the past month. there's no chance in hell you would have liked the burgers my friends and i were served when we were there. They didn't know who you were, right?

love that you guys featured blimpy burger. i went to Univ of Michigan and we ate there all the time. of course we had to "pre-party" first. part of the reason i gained 30lbs in college. i took my little brother there and he got screamed at by the lady behind the counter -- wish i could remember her name. have to go with the fried egg like papalovesmambo said.

He didn't say 'please' once during his entire order.

has to be better than the Walgreens' Double Cheeseburger Bulkie I had earlier today

Who cares what the place looks like...that's absurd. Take Molly's for example...it's one of the best burger joints in Manhattan and it's a sh*thole inside...that's what gives it its character. I actually think it's a negative for a burger place to have chic decor. I bet there is an inverse relationship b/t the chic-ness of the decor and the quality of the burger. Look at Pop Burger. Best burger joints I know have a kitschy, old-school divey pub feel to them, i.e. O'Connell's Pub in St. Louis, Ann's snack bar in Atlanta, Corner Bistro and Burger Joint in NYC, Louis' Lunch in New Haven, you get the picture.

We've had good luck the past couple of years with BRGuest restaurants. Had a great $35 prixe fixe at Primehouse last year (I think it's $42 this year) and had a very good T-giving dinner at Blue Water Grill the year before. Even though you think steakhouse with Primehouse, they had great turkey + gravy, stuffing, sweet potatoes, etc.