Gun Hill Brewing Co. is part of a series of tidbits from the chapters of my book Bars, Taverns and Dives New Yorkers Love, published by Rizzoli. You can order it from Powell’s, Amazon, Rizzoli, and Barnes & Noble. Signed prints of all the bars in the book are available here.
When Dave Lopez and Kieran Farrell opened the Gun Hill Brewing Company in 2014, New York City was home to all of 16 breweries, not one of them in the Bronx. San Diego, with about 10 percent of New York’s population, had 84. Something was amiss, and these two guys decided to do something about it right in the borough near and dear to them.
Lopez, a history buff, liked the idea of using “Gun Hill” in the brewery’s name. That strategic bump in the Bronx played a role in the Revolutionary War when the Continental Army hauled a cannon up there by way of what’s now called Gun Hill Road. As luck would have it, they found the perfect location for their brewery in an old auto transmission shop just a few yards south of that very road, so the name they had in mind was perfect, as well as prescient.
I discovered the brewery’s appeal as a hangout after donating to an online campaign that helped fund their canning operations. We stopped by on a Saturday to pick up my thank you gift, and found a hell of a nice scene at the brewery. The big garage door was open with folks hanging around the threshold enjoying a fine October afternoon and pints of fresh beer. The crowd inside, a happy mix of beer geeks as diverse as the Bronx itself (black, white, Hispanic, etc.), seemed at home, drinking and snacking, chatting and laughing, hollering and watching football. It felt like a tailgate party of three dozen 20-to-50-somethings milling about a gigantic, garage/workshop with 20-foot ceilings. Who was I to say no to that?
Where to Sit at Gun Hill:
When the weather’s right and the front garage door is open, grab a seat at one of their old wooden barrel-tables, enjoy some sun, and watch the crowd come and go. If you’re sitting inside, grab a spot at the far right of the bar, where you can watch the brewers work in back.
What to Drink at Gun Hill Brewing:
You’re there at the source, so I’d recommend opening with Gun Hill’s generous beer flight. Pick six beers (with a whopping 14 on tap, the bartender will help you choose) and get 5-ounce pulls of each for one low price. Regardless of what you start with, be sure to save room for a Void of Light stout, a pitch-black, roasty, slightly sweet “foreign style” stout, high in flavor with a hefty 7.9 percent alcohol content.