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BEER BAR: T.J. Finley's Public House
reviewed by Donavan Hall, posted Jan. 22, 2008
T. J. Finley's has been open for more than a year now (Oct. 2006), but it wasn't until this last weekend
that I made the almost hour long drive from my normal stomping
grounds to the south shore's most talked about craft beer bar. There's little parking on the main street
in Bay Shore, but we easily found a spot behind T.J. Finley's
and went in through their rear entrance by passing through their enormous outside drinking space, a
beer garden complete with an outdoor bar. Though obviously
deserted in January, I could imagine this being a really fun scene during the warmer months.
The interior of the pub is very well done -- a true beer palace. Whoever designed this place sure knew
how to make it feel homey. Redwood and brick, comfy bar seats,
an impressive bottle display, and best of all spacious English-style drinking alcoves. The traditional
English pub used to be divided up into small rooms where
parties of drinkers could congregate and have some semi-private conversations. I wrote about this
style of pub last year after my visit to England -- one of
my favorites was the Eagle &
Child in Oxford. At T.J. Finley's we settled into one of these alcoves and made ourselves at home.
The beer list at T.J. Finley's offers 100 different beers (seemingly the minimum number to be a
serious beer bar), with about 85 beers in bottles, 14 taps
and a cask with a beer engine. I did a little research ahead of time on their web site, which
said it had the current tap list, but when I arrived in
person there were a few notable differences. For example, the cask ale was an Ipswich IPA
rather than the advertised Harvest Ale. Unfortunately,
they were out of cask ale when I arrived. The bartender intimated that they had just run out,
so I'll cut them some slack.
On the T.J. Finley's web site, they advertise "No Crap On Tap" and that's what the bartender's
t-shirt reiterates. I'm sure the definition of "crap"
depends on the beer drinker, but let's just take a look at what they had on tap when I visited.
Five of the taps are taken up with what I would call
"industrial brews". They aren't crap per se, but if you want to be a craft beer bar I think
alternatives can be found for the likes of Guinness,
Smithwicks, Blue Moon, Hoegaarden, Stella, and (I'm sorry) Sam Adams Cherry Wheat (!?). With the
exception of the last, I would happily drink all these
beers if they were the only thing on tap on a desert island, but I don't think they have any place
on tap in a real craft beer bar. On the plus side,
there are a few real gems to reward the beer adventurer: Delerium Tremens on tap; Dulle Teve
(or Mad Bitch) from De Dolle in the bottle. T.J. Finley's
also has a good selection of beers from Long Island's craft breweries, including Blue Point
Blueberry and Southampton Pumpkin Ale on tap and Southampton
Grand Cru in bottles
Overall, the experience at T.J. Finley's was comfortable and pleasant. We had some excellent pub food and
some excellent beers and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.
I recommend that they seek out some more exotic beers for their taps. If I'm going to drive almost
an hour to get there, I want more ambitious beer
offerings and a working cask.
T.J. Finley's Public House
42 East Main Street
Bay Shore
(631) 647-4856
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