Cooper's Craft & Cocktails — Restaurant in New York

If you're looking for value in NYC, look no further than Cooper's Craft and Cocktails on Wednesdays early evening during happy hour! I'm sure the rest of the weekday happy hour specials offer value as well, but I've only experienced Wednesday's offering so I'll talk about those. 3 beers offered and both the Pilsner and the IPA were good. NB the pilsner has a fair amount of hoppiness to it so if you're looking for more of a traditional clean smooth not too bitter experience, this may not be for you. Didn't try any cocktails on this visit, but there is a happy hour special for this as well.

Now to the food, which is really the steal of the season, for me. Wednesday's Happy Hour Special is a smash burger for $10. I asked our server if it was the regular menu burger or if it had been portioned smaller for HH, and the answer was that it is their regular size smash burger - - $10!!! Cooked medium, as is the standard in the City today, you can ask for a cooler temperature but all burgers come to the table medium nowadays due to health code restrictions, the burger was juicy, tasty, with a decent bun that didn't fall apart in your hands. You can order a salad or potatoes as sides, and if you decide on the latter (like I did) I'd suggest you opt for the simpler regular French fries rather than the truffle flavored ones. I really don't understand the fashion of flavoring all things with truffle powder. I decided to splurge and added the pork belly to my burger, a $3.00 upcharge but so worth it. Thick, juicy, meaty, porky. Just delish. My default burger joint in the city for quality and price is Corner Bistro, now you know where I'm coming from, but on Wednesday's before 7pm the new burger champ for me is Cooper's Craft & Cocktails. Service is good in a classic East Village casual kind of way, which doesn't mean the staff isn't attentive its just very relaxed and friendly. Decore? Not sure there is much of it to really talk about. If you sit way inside the "black box" things will get dark in a hurry while the tables on the avenue benefit for the light coming in off the street. Tables are on the smaller side and the ones closest to the avenue are taller so you'll be perched on little bar stools so more generously proportioned folks like me - - you've been warned. More inside tables have regular chairs, but I've never sat there. Too dark on winter evenings for me. Music is the usual internet radio stuff but it's kept fairly low so there are times when you don't even hear it. Conversations can easily be had without having to sacrifice your vocal chords.

I'm not sure I would suggest bringing kids to this restaurant during happy hour or during more traditional dining hours. The place, from a kids perspective, is rather uninteresting, tables are fairly close together (so strollers might be difficult to manage) and the place does tend to get busy with all manner of East Villagers skewing more on the younger side. Although service is fast, kids might get bored and restless with not much to catch their attention while there. My suggestion, if you want to go out with kids to this place, is to do it during off hours when things are very quiet and kids may have a little more elbow room to be kids...

Congrats to Cooper's Craft and Cocktails for making things affordable again (and delectable too) in NYC at least one evening out...

I've been coming here once or twice a year for a couple of years and it's been a place where I can meet a couple of friends and hang out for a few hours. But my last visit really made the place amazing (at the end)

There beer list is very good, some great hard to find stuff. The quality of food is very good and the staff there is great.

Now to what made it amazing. They have 3 fryers: meat, veg and fries (except Monday, where the fish tacos get fried with the fries). This is amazing because as someone with a quirky meat allergy, I can't eat fries out at most places and their use of friers will mean better french fries anyway because the oil isn't contaminated with...

Good evening NYC & Welcome back !

Thank you lending me your digital eyes, so check it; this is the vibe, it was late night on a Sunday after a long day filled with Puerto Rican cultural activities/festivities & the crew needed a respite !

We stumbled upon this quiet gem opened at the fine hour beyond 1am & settled in(around 5 of us).

We got truffle fries, wings & espresso martinis(failed to capture the wings & truffle fries image).

The espresso martinis were solid, foam to liquid ratio was welcoming. Truffle fries slapped(hit the spot) & the wings were prepped with a reasonable amount of love despite the hour!

Check them out, or not, the...