Ben Roshia and Michelle Carello of East Williamsburg's One Stop Beer Shop are introducing beer cocktails to Brooklyn.

by Rachel Khona

I slammed down my Borscht Back– a shot of moonshine followed by a shot of borscht soup–and wiped my lips. I do not like shots and I have a strong abhorrence of beets. Yet Ben Roshia had convinced me to try both and like them to boot.

Convincing people to try new things is only one of Roshia’s many talents.

I wasn’t sure what to expect when I stopped by the One Stop Beer Shop, a new beer bar in East Williamsburg, to visit owner Ben Roshia. For some, the idea of a bar specializing in beer conjures up images of loud, boisterous beer halls or frat-like pubs. But Roshia is all about flipping convention on its head.

The stage-lit copper pipes, brick walls, and retro Edison bulbs give One Stop Beer Shop the feel of a comforting neighborhood bar; the perfect place to bring a date, meet your neighbors, or pull up a chair and sip on a cocktail while browsing through an early-twentieth century travel guide from the impressive library shelves. A raucous beer hall this is not.

“It’s a neighborhood bar, people should know each other. What did we do before TV? We talked, we hung out. I built a bar for writers, artists, musicians, and business people to come create stuff and talk and have meetings.”

One Stop Beer Shop doesn’t just serve a rotating selection of local and foreign craft beer – they specialize in beer cocktails, made by mixing beer with a variety of spirits, including the aforementioned moonshine, with fruit and aromatics.

“There are a really only a few people dabbling in beer cocktails in New York, but they’ve been getting more and more popular on the West Coast in recent years. I thought, why not bring them to Brooklyn? Most people here have never had a beer cocktail. I think the idea kind of scares people at first, but they like them once they try them.” Continue reading →