Background
Jon Bloostein with Heartland Brewing began serving its lineup of craft beers in 1995, at a location in Union Square. In 2004 Heartland expanded into the Empire State Building. In 2009 Heartland opened a brewpub inside the Port Authority Bus Terminal. They also opened two site around Times Square.
A rent increase forced Bloostein to close the flagship Union Square location in late 2014. In 2019 Heartland’s location inside the Port Authority Bus Terminal closed. Now, the company appears set to close the Empire State Building location early in 2020. As if that is not enough, Heartland just announced the Times Square location will be closing in March 2020.
Recently, Bloostein, alongside hundreds of other restaurateurs in the city, has been lobbying local government for economic breaks for the hospitality industry, including the ability to add surcharges to diners’ checks to offset the rising costs of wages, food, rent, and just about everything else it takes to run a restaurant in New York City.
Experience
Well a lot has transpired since we had a great time visiting the Heartland brewpub in the Empire State Building.
What better place to have a craft beer than in the Empire State Building? After an excellent tour of the ESB we went to Heartland Brewing on the ground floor. There are five locations around NYC. The brewpub at ESB on the first floor and one level below and has an extensive food menu. We enjoyed a flight of their 6 beers. The seasonal offering when we were there was the Smiling Pumpkin Ale and it was quite delicious. We also thought the Red Rooster Ale was good. Their Indiana Pale Ale (IPA) was a bit light for my liking. All in all a welcome find in Manhattan where brew pubs are not aplenty.
When in Manhattan check out Green Point Brewing and The Perfect Pint !
http://www.heartlandbrewery.com/
