- Great Beer Selection
- Happy Hour
- Bar Food
Description
Address: 180 Grand St. at Bedford Ave.
Telephone: 718-385-5008
Nearest Subway: L to Bedford Ave.
Map
Hours: 1 p.m. - 4 a.m., daily.
Guide Review
Ambiance
Iona is a laid-back Irish pub just off Bedford Avenue. The mint-green iron entryway with name "IONA" spelled out in Gaelic font will catch your eye. Weekdays are relatively calm, with plenty of space at the bar for casual beer drinking.
Liquor drinkers have no fear, there's plenty of Jameson to go around and wine can be ordered by the glass or by the bottle. Iona is cash only, but there's an ATM on the premises.
On the bar you'll find Irish flags and books on the beauty of Ireland, and the Irish bartenders add to Iona's authenticity. Weekends can get busy, but not claustrophobic, with a DJ in the back spinning ambient tunes. If you're lucky you can score the tables for groups in the front windows. In the warmer months, there's a lovely backyard with wooden benches for large groups - on cooler nights you might see a fire pit.
Background
Iona, in Irish, means "a burial place for kings." Once a candy store, the bar has been in business in Williamsburg for 11 years.
Happy Hour
Every day from 1 p.m. to 7 p.m., enjoy $1 off all drinks.
Drinks
On tap you'll find about twelve to fifteen rotating brews, from Blue Point Toasted Lager, Captain Lawrence, Stella Artois, or Yuengling, but always count on Guinness and Boddington's, Harp, and Belhaven Scottish Stout.
There are also over twenty bottled beers to choose from.
Cask Beer
For the hardcore beer connoisseurs, there are two Cask taps - usually Guinness and one other option. Cask beer is an unfiltered, unpasteurized brew that is served from a cask, without any additional carbonation. Cask is the closest you'll get to the experience of what it was like to drink beer back in the Dark Ages.
Food
Though Iona features meat and veggie pies and Panini at the bar, with chips, the real draw in terms of food is the delicious BBQ offered up in the garden during the summer. From about 7 p.m. on weekdays and 1 p.m. on weekends, nosh on pulled pork sandwiches, hot dogs (or tofu dogs), hamburgers (or veggie burgers) for no more than $5 or $6 a pop. If you're lucky, you might find ribs or lamb skewers.
Party Reservations
If you'd like to throw a party at Iona, the bar or the garden are available for both large and small groups. The delicious BBQ mentioned above can also be catered to your event. Visit their website, www.ionabrooklyn.com, for more information, or e-mail the date and time and number of guests to info@ionabrooklyn.com.