Sound Shore

Growlers Beer Bistro, which opened over Labor Day weekend, will have its grand opening ceremony and a ribbon cutting on Saturday Oct. 1. It’s located in the restored Metro North substation called Main Street Depot in downtown Tuckahoe, right across from the train station at the corner of Lake & Main.

Husband-and-wife owners Carrie and Ciaran Cullen, along with co-owners Eric Lorberfeld and Jamie Villarie, say on their web site that the bistro is not a restaurant and it is not a bar, but rather an “intimate, relaxing, hip and jazzy beer-centric Bistro/Lounge.”

Whatever it’s classified as, you’ll find 20 taps with of 16 craft beer lines, 1 cask conditioned ale and 3 red wines (yes wine from a keg). While Vallarie is mainly focusing on US craft beers featuring local New York brewers, Growlers will also carry international brands, and offer beer to go in half gallon brown glass containers known in craft beer circles as “growlers,” which you can bring back and refill.

The menu will focus on local, artisanal ingredients that change with the seasons, and focus on small, shareable plates designed to be pair with the beer.  You’ll find charcuterie, oysters and cheeses, as well as sandwiches, salads, bruschettas and chicharrones. On occasion, some larger dishes will be offered, too. Ciaran Cullen, who trained at the French Culinary Institute, is the chef.

The 411 is coming. Til then: Growlers Beer Bistro, 25 Main St., Tuckahoe. 914-793-0608. growlersbeerbistro.com.

Good Thursday morning. Here’s a glance at opinion content published today in The Journal News.

Midwestern tornadoes: Editorial
We encourage our readers to aid the suffering survivors of the devastating tornadoes have pummeled the Midwest. The people of Joplin, Mo., in particular, warrant our attention.

Police and DWI in Tuckahoe: Editorial
We comment on recent news that Tuckahoe police are accused of letting a drunken New York Police Department officer go without an arrest after he damaged property along that village’s main corridor in April 2010. Police, we say, are not above the law. We write:

Fresh allegations of police letting police off the hook for wrongful conduct, in this case drunken driving, drip with sober irony. There is the obvious: police are suppose to enforce the laws, not carve out exceptions for their own; and there is the embarrassing — one of the purported cover-up cops is the son of Westchester’s “Stop-DWI” chief. The saga serves as new evidence that even police officers sometimes have to learn expensive and often tragic lessons the hard way.

(more…)

The Tap House in Tuckahoe is doing an Oktoberfest menu this weekend.

Says managing partner Chris O’Brien:

We’ll be replacing all of our tap beer with German style Beers (Most of them from Germany), and Chef Kevin Bertrand is fine tuning his pretzel making skills, amongst other traditional and not so traditional German dishes. Our idea was not to change the menu but simply add a German style supplemental menu. We’ll be celebrating all week long, and will have some live German music on Thursday night. I’ve attatched a copy of our menu with the beers we’ll be serving.

Another Democrat has come forward to say he is interested in the county’s 10th Legislative District seat vacated earlier this month by Vito Pinto.

Greg Varian, a longtime New Rochelle community advocate, is formally seeking his party’s nomination for the job.

“With the County facing so many challenges, we need leadership fully in touch with the concerns of our communities,” said Varian, in a press release.

“Throughout my life, I have represented homeowners, small businesses and neighborhoods, and I want to bring those experiences to the County
Legislature as a strong advocate for the people of New Rochelle, Eastchester and Tuckahoe.  I’m not interested in slogans, I am interested in solutions, and I am ready to get to work,” he said.

Varian is an elected trustee for the New Rochelle Public Library, is former president of the New Rochelle Bar Association and former president of the Halcyon Park Neighborhood Association. He is an attorney in private practice with a specialty in municipal law.

He and Tuckahoe Mayor John Fitzpatrick both are seeking Pinto’s seat on the Democratic line. Pinto was a Democrat.

On the Republican side, Eastchester Town Board member Sheila Marcotte, just re-elected in November for a four-year term, also said she was interested in Pinto’s seat.

Pinto, who served as 10th District representative to the county Legislature, on April 9 resigned the position he held for a dozen years to join the
administration of County Executive Rob Astorino. He now is head of the Veterans Service Agency and Office of Drug Prevention and Stop-DWI.

A special election must be held before July 7 to fill the spot.

— Randi Weiner