No Early Beer, Long Lines For VIPS At Brewers PicNyc On Governors Island

[UPDATED] There has been a flurry of Twitter griping about yesterday's "Brewers PicNyc" on Governors Island, which continues today with a healthy variety of craft beer and food. Though the whole thing sounds promising enough (beer, food, and lots of sun followed by a crowded boat ride!), yesterday's kickoff appears to have hit some snags. In an ironic twist of fate that is sure to reduce you to tears, the VIPs who paid extra to get early access at 11 a.m. had their Sunday morning beer lust thwarted by the Empire State's Puritanical blue laws.

The event was co-presented by Thrillist, which promised VIP ticket buyers a green wristband entitling them to "early Admission at 11 a.m., giving you an hour to totally own the place, and hang the drapes that you like. VIP Beer & Food Pass: That means unlimited beer, food and VIP line access, plus the right to ignore that guy in the unfortunate sun hat when he bitches about your VIP line access." Thrillist sold those VIP tickets for $55, but others who bought them through the Brewers PicNyc site paid $85 for the same deal. Unfortunately, it seems like a raw one because they weren't allowed to serve beer before noon. Here's some of the best bitchiness Twitter can buy:

We were promised shorter VIP food & beer lines w/ VIP tix for #brewerspicnyc. They lied.
This is practically extortion. Thanks @thrillist (@brewdroid)
So green bracelet means you're a sucker. #brewerspicnyc #brewerspicnycsucks #ripoff. Biggest waste of money ever. (@PJ_Abanilla)
biggest disappointment not what we bought into. Long lines. No need for VIP tickets. A complete waste. (@Chris_Rezny)
@Thrillist This was a classic bait and switch. #ShameShameShame (@TheFriendZone)
Thanks for nothing. Buyer beware. Stay away from #BrewersPicNYC if you expect good customer service and/or as advertised tikperk (@JoeKashey45)
Brewers PicNYC: Good idea, good food, good beer, horrible execution. (@mrcrothers)

But it wasn't just the VIPs who suffered! Basic admission is $15, but you also need to buy tickets for beer and food, which was a major problem if you didn't bring cash, because THE ATMS ON THE ISLAND WEREN'T WORKING. And according to the venting on Twitter, the lines were too damn long, and some of the more popular food vendors ran out of food within the first two hours. But, hey, at least it didn't rain? And to be fair, there are also plenty of Twitter users who managed to enjoy themselves. Still, this isn't the first time a food/drink event has gone sideways on Governors Island: Food Truck Fest 2010, Never Forget.

We're told that this morning there will be precious beer pouring liberally at 11 a.m., and one of the people connected with the event, Jimmy Carbone of the excellent Jimmy’s No. 43, tells us, "Most people who came had a great time, especially those who came later. Some of the top trucks like Luke's Lobster, Rickshaw Dumplings were hit hard early. Today we'll have extra trucks including Asia Dog and Pizzamoto, plus larger beer areas. There will be fewer VIPs and more people later just buying food and beer. A rough start but tomorrow should be smoother!"

UPDATE: Reached for comment, a high-ranking Thrillist official tells us, "We're working with the event organizer on behalf of our members to find out how the situation could have been improved and whether/how the organizers can make it up to those who had a less than stellar experience."

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By John Del Signore in Food on May 30, 2011 9:21 AM

Comments [rss]

BarsAndBartending.com

When I lived in Australia, many of my friends or their Dad's brewed their own beer at home (beer prices are much higher in OZ), So they always had a cold one ready to offer and they could proudly say they made it themselves. It become their hobby. Many people wonder how to homebrew and a lot of people either think that if they home brew their own beer, it will either be expensive, taste Disgusting or, be Really Difficult to Do. But it's not complicated at all, in fact, it's fun adn rewarding. Here's a link to get started homebrewing our own beer. http://bars-and-bartending.com... has all the directions, ingredients and supplies.

rebecca lando

pretty sure the event's hosts had no control over how much food and beer the vendors brought. it's telling that the vendors who run trucks/do events for a living - like yesterday's pizzamoto - had enough to go around, but that the stands by restaurants didn't seem to bother to do any research into how popular these summer food fests can be, and didn't bring enough food for the crowds.

Anthony James

No no no, that' wasn't the issue. Here is what we were sold (Quoted from the email)

VIP ACCESS -- SUNDAY, 5/296hrs of VIP access to unlimited brews, food & music for Memorial Day WkndEarly admission at 11a + roped off Thrillist VIP PicNyc area
VIP line access to get Sixpoint, Goose Island, Brooklyn + more
Eats from Luke's Lobster, Fette Sau, Australian Meat Pies + more

Where does that say food tastes only? If something is sold as a VIP ticket, don't you expect it to be limited? When the majority of the people there are also VIPs it loses its value. It was oversold, nothing was explained correctly, and only having a small set of the vendors promised made this thing a huge problem. The vendors not having enough food was the smallest of concerns.

James Crothers

It had all of the food and drink lines of a music festival, with none of the music. It was a beautiful day and it was nice to be with friends outside, but I left after an hour and a half, which, I'm told, is when some of the brewers started to run out of a beer. Poor execution indeed.

ab_bklyn

Why does it seem like every one of these foodie/drinkie events on Gov's Island is a complete sh*tshow? Last year's Parked food truck event, if I remember correctly from Gothamist's account, was the same... long lines, not enough food, disappointed attendees and long-ass ferry lines. (Thought I didn't go to Parked, I was equally pissed about that event because I was just trying to get to Gov's Island that day for a picnic. I saw the ferry lines and decided not to even bother. )

Organizers of these events should know better and have enough food/drink on hand for everyone, or they shouldn't bother to even plan them. It sucks that people wasted their day getting over there and back for nothing.

longacre

Any kind of event which requires a ferry is bad news.

Eric Gordon

I agree, Govs Island is an awesome day out, but festivals of any sort are not their strong point.

sometimeslisa

Those of us who might as well have thrown our money over the side of the ferry wouldn't have minded a little Waaambulance action to cart us away from the completely wasted day we experienced. It wasn't just that a hard-earned and much-anticipated holiday Sunday was totally wrecked. It was the colossal waste of money and the false advertising that made the day so difficult to deal with. It was hot, the lines were long, the ATMs didn't work, the samples ran out, the port-a-johns were- well, they were port-a-johns.

I spent so much money and spent so much time in line on Sunday just trying to have a good time, to spend money on stuff I didn't expect to pay for, to get two whole beers on my early admission ticket, to attempt to just deal with it and have a good time. But it wasn't possible. The PicNYC ended up being a nearly $100 endeavor, and I prepaid (supposedly).

So - I'll whine a little, I guess, but don't claim this is entitlement on my part. Or, sure, claim that I am entitled. Because I am. I'm entitled to get what I paid for, plain and simple. Does that make me a whiny hipster? I think not. I very much did not get what I paid for.

I feel for the Food Karma folks and the Thrillist folks. They didn't have their stuff together, and they had to deal with some irate folks, some of whom (not including me) were not very nice. Still, I sure hope they make good and give us at least what we paid back, since we can't get back our day.

9000

fuck whambulances, this event blew incredibly hard, period.

Anthony James

I don't see how asking to get what we paid for is at all whining. We were told when we bought the tickets there were going to be VIP only lines, unlimited food (no restrictions mentioned), and VIP only areas. What we got were small samples we had to wait in horrible lines for, no VIP area, and about 1/3 of the promised vendors. We spent a lot of money for that, when we could've spent $15 and gotten the exact same thing.

jp

why doesn't the fictional character want us drinking before noon on sunday? don't his ignorant followers drink his blood (aka wine) early sunday mornings?

Inspector Spacetime

Because one upon a time his ignorant followers were either showing up to church drunk in numbers too large to safely sneer at, or (worse) they weren't showing up to church at all (and wives were occasionally too embarrassed to have to explain where was their man). This country used to really know how to party.

This country's been in a spiral of increasing temperance - across ALL age groups - for 40 years. An occasional blip here and there, with the over-represented numbers of articles about US consumption going up (e.g., wine or whatever), is the exception, not the rule.

TheOtherBob

Yeah, this is what happened with Brewfest (or Beerfest or Brofest, or whether the hell it's called) last year out there. Too many people, way too little beer, not nearly enough food. I went once, realized it wasn't worth bothering with, and haven't gone again.

But, John? Look, I get that the whole entitlement attitude is annoying -- and, no, you're not entitled to demand anything just because an event sucked monkey balls. But don't confuse that with just saying "this sucked monkey balls." Some things do. You're acting like the attendees are entitled little princesses for saying so -- but that's just a cheap shot. It sucked, they said so...the hell's your problem with that?

schmeep

A certain blogger is notorious for expecting that everyone has the same opinion as him, and being surprised that there are other, less snarky viewpoints.