Elite Event: Bernheim and Schwartz

Woot!
Greatest pretzels ever! So much food awesomeness!

Another great Unilocal event and I was excited that I was accepted into a Manhattan event. I love the area in Washington Heights, it looked like a cool community with tons of cool restaurants and bar/​lounges. I will venture uptown more often to check out some of the cool spots we passed. I briefly met the Manhattan Unilocal coordinator, Ruggy who was friendly. We also met some new Manhattan Unilocalers and they were welcoming and sociable.
We were previously advised that we would have some light bites and to eat something hearty before hand. I am so happy we didn’t listen, the food was pleasantly overwhelming. I initially was saving some hors-d’oeuvre’s on the side when I realized the food just never stopped coming. All of the bar food (empanadas, burger sliders, tacos, egg rolls, mushroom grilled cheese and bacon tater-​tots) were delicious. I just remember the servers continuing to bring food and it was amazing to not have to stand by the exit where the food comes out to ensure you taste a little of everything being served. IJS, LOL.
The venue itself was massive and an amazing place to hang out, especially for large groups. I could see myself having a cool private event here because it’s so spacious with bars in the front and back. I am not a big beer drinker but you also had the option of wine but I just rinsed down ALL that food with good olé water. LOL.
This was my first time participating in the White Elephant game and it was so much fun. Initially my game plan was to look for the gift cards on the floor. However, as soon as everyone went to pick their gift from under the tree I just grabbed a gift that looked it might be cool so I wouldn’t be left without a gift. My first gift was a cute adult game «You’re Pulling My Leg.» However, I wasn’t satisfied and traded it in for a surprise gift that turned out to be a «Smokin joe’s BBQ Sprayer.» LOL Overall we had a great time and I love our Unilocal events!

Perfect way to ring in the end of 2014 Unilocal events!
There was so much food, tons of ppl, lots of beer and an overall exuberant ambiance. The food was delicious and I could not keep my hands away from those bacon tator tots and chicken tikka masala wontons. DELICIOUS! The beer selections had a high alcohol concentration level which is always greatly appreciated, so thanks guys! The amount of options offered at this event was extraordinary. There was something for everything to try and enjoy. They even had wine during the event! The staff was magnificent. The space is humongous and it was the perfect location to fit all these Unilocalers traveling from all these boroughs. Loved being introduced to this place considering that I live extremely close and could become a regular.
The white elephant exchange was soo much fun and creative, what a perfect way to bring the Unilocal community together. All I can say is thank you Ruggy and Unilocal for an awesome event and for an amazing 2014!

Saturday afternoon cocktail party before Christmas! Doing it uptown Unilocal style! Happy Holidays! Bad Santa approves!
Ruggy picked the perfect venue for an end of year Unilocal event in Manhattan. It was so great having it up in my neck of the woods in the northern part of the city where there are so many great places that the downtown «I won’t venture above 14^th street snobs» don’t know about. Bernheim & Schwartz is one of them.
An old-​timey beer hall and brewery in a spot where an original stood in the era before Prohibition. Now reinvented and employee owned for the new generation to discover and enjoy their amazing brews. It has that old-​school look and feel with a modern décor. Exposed brick walls, bench and booth seating, community tables, dark woods, leather, Edison style lighting, and a long heavy bar anchoring the joint not to mention the great party room in the back. We had run of the whole place from 3−5pm on a Saturday afternoon, and many of us stayed around untill after 6. It was that good. Those beers had so much ABV. Oh yeah.
Five different kinds of beer and each so very different. Something for everyone. Oh, and the food was just as good. Tuna tacos, empanadas, mushroom grilled cheese, spring rolls, wontons, cheesy tater tots, and kobe sliders that rocked. There was no problem if you arrived with an empty belly. Not to mention a fun white elephant gift exchange where I scored a bottle of Bitch wine. Perfect!
Big props to Unilocal CM Ruggy for treating us to another wonderful uptown Elite event. Cool mix of Unilocalers here having fun. Also have to hand it to the terrific staff at B & S for taking care of us all night with non-​stop pours of delicious beer in huge mugs and super tasty food served all day. Dat huge hot pretzel tho placed on our tables. Nom.
I feel sad for those who bailed out or whined about it being to far uptown to not join the party. You all missed an awesome event in a spot that blows away most downtown bars. So much win here. Sucks to be you. I’m headed back for another. Dunkel or Winter Lager. Dark coffee and chocolate tasting malty beer.
Mmmmm…beeeeeer.

My first Manhattan event and I loved it! The space was huge and fit so many Unilocalers. Once we arrived we put our gifts under the Christmas tree. I wasn’t sure how they were going to do white elephant, especially with so many of us. But about an hour in, one of the waitresses just told us to go to the tree and grab a gift if we brought one. It was kinda chaotic with everyone just around the tree just picking up a gift and throwing it back down. I’m glad someone is enjoying the Bitch wine I brought :)
I snagged a bottle of wine and my bf received a tomato planting kit. There was some Unilocalers going around for trades. But, besides the gift exchange, the food and drinks were PLENTIFUL. Most of the Unilocal events have a ton a booze but not so much food. The waiters here were going around quite frequently, and I was able to try each item. I really enjoyed the chicken tikka masala wontons with the spicy dipping sauce. The tuna tacos were quite refreshing and tasty. Towards the end of the event, the waitresses were bringing out huge pretzels with mustard dip. It was warm and soft and just the perfect accompaniment to our beers.
Thanks Ruggy for such an awesome event!

Super fun and festive way to celebrate the year-​end and holiday season! This event had such a large turnout (besides the one at Fogo de Chao), so I had a blast meeting and hanging out with so many new faces!
Pros:
* Bernheim and Schwartz was spacious and well-​decorated– a nicer and more elegant German beer hall/​gastropub with a semi-​private room (with bar) in the back and a more communal tables in the front.
* Loved the food from the Mini Kobe Beef Sliders, House Made Bacon Tator Tots, Chicken Tikka Masala Wontons, Huge Pretzel with cheese and honey mustard dip. My favorites of the night were the Sashimi Tuna Tacos, Pastrami Reuben Spring Rolls, and Grilled cheese with mushroom and caramelized onions. The food was well cooked and perfect as gastropub small bites!
* Excellent service– there was SO much food to go around, the staff kept running around making sure we were well fed and hydrated with beer and wine and continuously cleaned up after us!
Cons:
* The gift exchange wasn’t as organized as it could have been and turned out to be a mad and messy scramble with Unilocalers turning into ravenous animals (I mean, we already are vultures with the food, but this took us to a whole new level) grabbing for the best gifts. I’m pretty sure a number of Unilocalers and their +1s didn’t bring gifts but took one anyways, because I was left empty handed (Kudos to Allene T. for calling them grinches) Not very nice! :(
Thank you Ruggy and wonderful staff at Bernheim and Schwartz for hosting such a wonderful and lively holiday party!

This was my first Manhattan event, and I absolutely loved it so much!!!
This beer hall is super cute. I loved the cozy feel of the restaurant. The staff was amazing all night. They continuously served us food happily, cleaned the tables often, and poured us some great beer. The winter ale was really good, and I normally don’t like darker beers but this one did it right.
Food– The beef sliders OMG soooo good. The grilled cheese was so good. Loved the mushroom and onion combo on it. So much flavor. The reuben spring rolls– I wouldn’t think to normally get this, but they were surprisingly amazeballs!
The secret santa gift exchange was so much fun. Thank you for the skull shot glasses! I also got to meet a ton of really nice people, and became known as the Unilocal xmas tree. Thanks to all who added your name tag– it was a great way to get to know a lot of you. Unilocalers are truly a one of a kind group of people. It feels like family every time you go to an event.
Thanks Ruggy for putting this event together, and letting me part of the Manhattan scene. I hope to come to many more b/​c I had such a blast.

A grand event! The venue was massive — huge cafeteria style front room and an equally large back room with plenty of seating.
There was a good selection of drafts and a ton of delicious bites being passed around all night — sashimi tuna tacos, chicken tikka masala wontons (seasoned well), kobe beef sliders (juicy but could have used some fixin’s), bacon tator tots, pastrami spring rolls (so crisp!) and a mushroom grilled cheese. Everything was ridiculously tasty, although my favorites were definitely the mushroom grilled cheese (toasty, gooey bites) and tuna tacos — super fresh, chilled tuna topped with a sweet mango salsa and aioli in a crisp shell. Incredible! A total flavor bomb. I’d totally come back for these. A gigantic, piping hot pretzel with accompanying mustard and cheddar dipping sauces was later brought to the table for sharing. The pretzel was dense but fluffy and perfect with the thick cheddar sauce!
It was my first white elephant exchange but I’m not sure we did it right. It went down more like a secret Santa. Everyone had put their gifts by the tree upon entering and about an hour later, there was a mad dash to grab something. I ended up with a gingerbread house kit, sweet! My first one. Thanks Juan! Can’t wait to make it. Oh yea, also got myself my first pair of Unilocal elite socks, wooo!
It was a great crowd and event. Always a good sign when everyone doesn’t want to leave and stays past the event time. Happy holidays, ya’ll! Cheers to an unforgettable 2014 and even better 2015!

Excellent event at an amazing space — I had no idea places this large and spacious existed in Manhattan.
People: I always love people. Loved seeing old faces and meeting peoples +1s. Hopefully we showed them a great time!
Food: Tuna tacos (too cold for me, but very flavorful), mushroom grilled cheese (ooey gooey goodness…), chicken tikka masala wonton dumplings (MY FAVORITE! so well seasoned) (and veggie version, too!), craft beer, sliders (could have used something other than just ketchup), tater tots (with bacon!), huge pretzel with cheddar dip and mustard dip (fresh, dense, and delicious), reuben spring rolls (tastes like it sounds)… and that’s about it! They had so much food I started refusing because I was too full.
Gift exchange: so, everyone running to a tree and picking out a gift is definitely not how you play white elephant… but it makes sense, because I was wondering how long it would take to play the REAL white elephant with 894 729 842 people (probably at least 2 – 3 hours). Basically, it was a mad dash to the tree to pick a gift that wasn’t yours (if you brought a gift). I heard that we had some grinches that took gifts even though they didn’t bring one, and there were people left without gifts at the end. Bummer. I was very happy with mine — a smores kit and mugs! I saw some funny things like edible underwear and other X rated things… I’m sure they’ll be useful to somebody :)
Staff: super nice and boy are they efficient! Every time I turned around, my dirty napkins and toothpicks were gone!
A+ event — thanks to everyone who made this happen.
Happy holidays!

For some reason I never explored much of the UWS — I didn’t even know we have such a spacious venue in the MSH!
I got there a few minutes after 3pm and there was already a line. I went to the back room and dropped off my gift and got a draft beer immediately. Food came out right after my arrival. There were mushroom grilled cheese, tuna tacos, spring rolls, wontons, sliders, bacon tator tots, and pretzels! My favorite was the bite-​sized mushroom grilled cheese. It was so good and I lost count how many rounds I got. I got to sample all the other apps too but couldn’t go for seconds because I got stuffed so quickly. I don’t know how the staff managed to cater so many of us. They really kept the food coming throughout the first 90 minutes or so, nonstop. This doesn’t happen at all EEs. So 5 stars just for that!
The staff worked really hard cleaning up the tables periodically and made sure everybody was happy. At around 4pm, everybody went to the Christmas tree to exchange gifts. I prepared some chocolate and got a super nice hand soap in return! Thank you! I also saw some crazy but fun gifts tonight!
I actually got to meet/​know a lot of new Unilocalers tonight so that was fun. A lot of people left by the 5pm mark but my group stayed until 6pm. We were all still finishing the draft and the staff were so patient with us.
I will definitely have to come back! Thanks to Ruggy and the staff here who worked so hard to make everybody happy!

Made it last minute but the party just got started.
Mini burgers were well seasoned.
Winter lager was dark but matched well with my burgers.
Staff were quick to clean mu half empty pint but stopped them from taking away my beer.
Exchanged gifts with fellow Unilocalers and got myself a new iphone case.
Thanks Ruggy @ Unilocal and Bernheim Schwartz for an awesome event to celebrate the holidays and end of the year.

Way to represent, this was a great event and proper way to end the year! These elites sure know how to have a good time. The white elephant exchange definitely added a lil something extra, it was so much fun just watching the types of gifts that were exchanged.
The staff was great, and the food even better! No complaints or qualms at all, just a jolly time enjoying delicious appetizers and trying new beers. The IPA might have been my favorite, stronger than the other beers and very hoppy!
As per the food: I have to be honest, but those tuna tacos and the mushroom/​onions grilled cheese were insanely good, I could not resist the urge to keep trying more despite being satiated. The tacos were refreshing, light, and addicting, a dish that would be great for summer days but I’ll be happy to have them all year round. I’m a fan! The grilled cheese was so gooey and it had the right amount of saltiness.
Thanks to Bernheim & Schwartz, Ruggy & the Unilocal team for a wonderful holiday party which definitely got everyone in the holiday mood.