Biere

I stopped into Biere with my fiance on a Friday evening. Since this place is advertised as a beer/wine bar we took a seat at what appeared to be the bar. Our lovely waitress came over and we ordered two drinks and an appetizer. Then it got awkward. A man who I'm assuming is either the owner or manager came out and was obviously very upset with our waitress for letting us sit at the bar. He felt the need to come over to us as well and let us know that we normally could not sit at the bar unless we were ordering dinner but since it was not busy it would be ok this time. He seemed genuinely upset about this. How silly of us to assume we could sit at the bar in a quiet restaurant on a Friday night. We were made to feel very unwelcome and will not be back which is a shame as we both live and work on the North Fork.

Great beer list, especially Belgians, but bland and overpriced food.

The mussels, placed centrally on the menu, were small and dried out.  The spinach crisp appetizer was good.  The eggplant timballo cost $22 for a very small but fairly tasty portion of glorified eggplant parm.  The shrimp and asparagus pasta was unbelievably bland; we had to ask for salt and pepper (not provided automatically) to make it even vaguely palatable.

At this price point ($22-$30 for small and bland entrees!) it comes off as an insult to not accept any credit cards.  Having to shell out $53 each for a dinner we left hungry, with one drink apiece, was much harder to swallow when we had to pay cold hard cash than if we could charge the meal.

Lots of weirdness, too: the draft beers aren't listed on the menu, so you have to get out of your seat to go over to the bar to see what they are (unless you happen to be sitting at a few tables with a line of sight for them).  An odd oversight for a beer-focused place.

The staff were very friendly, at least.

Run, don't walk to Biere. As the name might suggest, the place has a fabulous selection of beers from around the world. Beer, though, is just the overture to what is a celebration for the mouth and eyes. When Frank grinned his welcome: 'Let me feed you', we put ourselves in his hands and were treated to tasting sizes of the most fabulous foods. The owner serenaded my palate with tastings of salmon en croute, homemade sausage, pickled eggplant tapanade, mussels steamed in ginger broth, aged cheese, slivered shiitake mushrooms, roasted red peppers marinated in olive oil...oh, it goes on! My mouth was having a party. The last time I ate this well, I was in Europe. And since it was tastings, I am guilt free. Ah! Of course, he also has a dinner menu, but with tastings this good and this varied, I left completely sated. Loved it! We'll definitely be back!