Mobo Bar
908 Route 25A
Miller Place, NY 11764
631-744 -7449
info@mobobar.com
mobobar.com
hours: M-F happy hour 5 - 7 (kitchen open late)
You'll find five taps at Mobo and three of them will be pouring Blue Point. The special "Mobo Brew" tap is a special Blue Point beer. The last time I was there, the "Mobo Brew" was the Double Blond. The other two taps are Pabst Blue Ribbon which pours for $2 all the time and Guinness.
a real place
While putting together The Beer Hall Guide to Long Island I remembered fondly my few visits to a place very near my house (just over the border into Miller Place) called Mobo. It's a stark little space in a strip mall on the south side of 25A. The one bit of decor that does the heavy-lifting share of Mobo's charm is the carousel horse behind the bar. It's this mascot that gives the places its name.
Last I was there was during happy hour. The bartender gave me one of these pull tab things. Whatever is inside is your happy hour "prize". I pulled my tab and was rewarded with a 25 cent Blue Point pint from the tap. A pretty good deal, I thought. I'll have to come back to this place more often. The only problem is that it's a too far to walk.
When it came time for choosing a "local" I went with DEKS instead of Mobo for two reasons, the architecture at DEKS has a ton of character and its not a far walk from my house. But I would have gone with Mobo if the choice was made on the basis of beer selection alone. At the time I started "drinking in place" both DEKS and Mobo were tied with five taps each and Mobo was pouring three Blue Points instead of one. Now DEKS has 12 taps, 100 bottle selections, cask nights, and beer dinners.
I wonder what would have happened if Mobo were within walking distance?
Running across this reference to Mobo in my guide forced me to ask the question: why isn't Mobo in my guide? It's a nice little drinking spot that is certainly worth dropping into occasionally. Is it just the number of beers? The architecture? Yes. Nice little places with their local following and their idiosyncratic tap selection are probably more interesting than the big craft beer bars catering to the "geek" crowd. The beer bars come off like they are trying to be something. The little places where "Everyman" drinks really are places.
