![]() ![]() The Half Pint allows me to get out from behind the bar and an indoor tap room and into the fresh air and sunshine. These are being joined by newer breweries such as Springs, Kidd Squid, and übergeek, all of whom are brewing top notch beers. The craft beer scene out here is well established with Greenport, North Fork, Twin Forks, and Montauk to name but a few. While I have access to beers from all over, I’m enjoying being part of the East End community and embracing local. Everyone loves a great Pilsner and a hazy IPA, but how about a Kolsch, Belgian Wheat, Saison, or a tart Gose? A fresh, local draft is hard to beat on a sun-filled afternoon or evening. I enjoy curating our tap list for individual events, a different kind of gathering and clientele, all with a seasonal bent. The Top Hops Half Pint has allowed me to bring my passion for craft beer from the Lower East Side to the Hamptons. Talk a little about your experiences with events on the East End. We also have great non-alc options thanks to our pals at Athletic Brewing. ![]() Most clients want a mix of beer styles as well as wine, usually a rosé and Sauvignon Blanc. We have six taps so we can pour a wide range of drinks and not just beer. We spent a year getting the Piaggio Ape (a three-wheel big brother to a Vespa) customized with a refrigerated tap system. Inspired, we saw a similar opportunity to bring the spirit of Top Hops, with its knowledge, passion and selection, to private homes on the East End via the Top Hops Half Pint. We had always been big fans of 1943 Pizza and were well acquainted with the Rolling in Dough pizza truck. During the pandemic everyone was forced to “pivot” and we were no different. When the pandemic arrived in 2020, we left the city for beautiful Shelter Island. Our 10-year lease was up and we were out.įortunately, my wife and her sisters had bought a house in Shelter Island in 2002. Sadly, Covid dealt us a nasty hand in so many ways but especially when our landlord was forced to sell 94 Orchard Street. In a year we would pour approximately 1000 unique beers. We had 20 rotating draft lines, which changed daily. We carried 750 to 850 different brands of beer from all over the globe. I personally curated one of the most extensive bottle and can selections around. Beer tourists from around the world would come to our hybrid tasting bar, bottle shop, classroom, and our LES home became a required stop for any traveling beer enthusiast. Anyone who paid us a visit will tell you that 94 Orchard Street was special. My wife and I opened Top Hops Beer Shop on Orchard Street on the Lower East Side in January of 2012. My dream was to open the best beer bar and bottle shop and we did. It was a memorable evening and the plan was hatched. The idea for Top Hops unfolded in 2010, as all great ideas do, over dinner and beers with friends. Beer has been my passion since my first Belgian beer in 1989. I had left my first career in finance to work for Anheuser-Busch six years prior. It was time to leave the world of big beer and open my own business. Tell us about the concept for Top Hops and how you came up with the idea.Ībout 13 years ago I decided I needed a change. Until Covid, my family and I lived happily in the City and spent most of our free time on Shelter Island and the North and South Forks. We had many overseas adventures in the interim and somehow managed to squeeze in our fair share of brewery and tap room visits along the way in Ireland, France, Italy, China (such a surprise), Spain and, of course, the holy grail, Belgium. Two years later we were back in China to adopt our younger son. A few years post the nuptials we traveled to China to adopt our oldest son. We were both avid travellers, and continue to be so. A short seven years later we were married on the west coast of Ireland in a beautiful fly fishing lodge. I have lived in and around New York City my whole life but I always loved to explore and see new places. I have two wonderful children and a fabulous wife. I was born in New York City and raised in the suburbs of northern New Jersey. ![]() This summer, Top Hops Half Pint is poised to put your party “over the top” adding Wolffer’s Summer in a Bottle rosé, Kidd Squid beer, and more. His passion and knowledge is as robust as his offerings and the Half Pint aims to satisfy a broad range of tastes. Top Hops owner Ted Kenny’s mobile tap truck is perfect for large and small parties. Top Hops is a unique beer-obsessed hybrid: part-tasting bar, part-retail and online shop, part-mobile party in a three-wheeled Piaggio Ape Classic imported from Italy. ![]()
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