UPPER EAST SIDE — A craft brew shop on East 86th Street is finally getting the attention it’s been after — but not for its beer.
Since opening more than three years ago, City Swiggers has featured works from a number of artists on its walls, hoping to attract lovers of both art and artisanal suds with a free tasting and gallery show.
But the attempt to marry the two worlds has proven a “hard sell,” explained co-owner Pamela Rice.
That’s why she took a chance on East Harlem resident Kevin Medina to begin curating what he calls "Beer Art Events" and pushing the gatherings on social media.
Using the hashtag #BeerArtEvents on Twitter and Instagram, Medina was able to lure 125-plus art lovers and craft beer enthusiasts to City Swiggers’s most recent event in June. He’s now planning a second one for August 14.
“God bless 'em,” Rice said. “Social media is totally conducive to pinpointing that group interested in art and beer. There’s artists and then there’s beer people, and they really tend not to be the same people.”
Rice said three different groups — beer tasters, the regulars and art lovers — attended the first event and eventually began to mingle.
Medina and Rice hope to replicate the experience on Aug. 14 with Myles Hunt, a local artist who works in a range of mediums, and craft brewer Keegan Ales from Kingston, N.Y.
The tasting is free, and Hunt will sell his artwork and offer prints for $25, Medina said.
Medina is not a curator by profession, but actually a hedge fund lawyer with a love of craft beer and an eye for local art.
"I like beer a lot... probably too much," he acknowledged. "Craft breweries are artists in a way because there are four ingredients in beer but hundreds of variations of it."
Medina has become very knowledgeable about craft brews, especially when living across from City Swiggers a few years ago. He said the industry is undergoing a renaissance of sorts because so many people are brewing.
The shop, which regularly holds tastings, offers hundreds of craft beers and 14 brews on a constantly rotating tap.
Medina wanted to try his hand at curating a show for City Swiggers, in part, because he never felt comfortable walking into art galleries in the city. He noted that the Metropolitan Museum of Art was jammed with tourists and the smaller galleries were intimidating.
"You won’t have to be afraid, because you're with friends who like beer," he said of the beer shop. "It's not going to be a stiff-upper-lip thing, even though it's in the Upper East Side. I’m trying to bring people who like beer and introduce them to art. And introduce those interested in local art to beer. Why not join them together for a couple of nice beers?"
The Beer Art Event will begin at 7 p.m. on Aug. 14 at City Swiggers, located at 320 East 86th St.
