Heartland Brewery - New York - TravBuddy

Knowing that we weren't going to have much choice once we got back to our neighborhood, we grabbed a quick bite (and drink) nearby to Penn Station. Even though the food in that area is also pretty hit-or-miss, the Heartland Brewery was a very nice place to stop and chill out for an hour or so.
This place is rather like a Houlihan's, or a John Harvards... it's an independent brewery that also serves food, namely comfort food and pub fare.

Our server was excellent, really friendly but also really attentive and quick.

To drink, we both had the "Seasonal Voyage", which consisted of 8 little taster glasses of 6 different house beers, and 2 of their seasonal brews. Many passers-by stopped to look through the window at our "voyages", making us feel like raging alcoholics, but COME ON! It's a microbrewery! That's what you're supposed to get!

To eat, I got the pulled pork sandwich. It was pretty tasty, and so were the fries, but there was just a tiny ramekin of cole slaw... not enough! Where I'm from, you simply can't have a pulled pork sandwich without lots of cole slaw!
My friend had the beef burger cooked medium rare, and (surprisingly) that's how it came out.
The prices are a little high for what you get; but, hey, it's New York.

I guess this review is really about the beer. I prefer hoppy, bitter beers, so my favorite would have to be their house IPA (Indiana Pale Ale). It was aggressively bitter and hoppy, and definitely would have been my drink of choice had I ordered a pint of just one kind. Coming in second was the Red Rooster Ale, reminiscent of Killians, but hoppier and with a sweeter finish.

Ultimately the Heartland Brewery is the kind of place you'd typically avoid in NYC because of all the other options; however it's still good ol' comfort food with decent beers, and would probably be slammed every night if it were located in, say, Long Island.