Big Beers and Brats at the East Side Restaurant in New Britain

You've seen it all around Connecticut, the words "Ticki-tocky! Ticki-Tocky!" plastered across East Side Restaurant's billboards. What the hell is it? It's a chant that the servers yell out as they serve you huge, 32 F degree beers in massive chilled glasses. You answer with "Hoy Hoy Hoy!" as the huge brews are put down in front of you. East Side's owner, Nick Augustino, explains in a video on their website that he cribbed the phrase from The Man Show with Adam Carolla and Jimmy Kimmel, and made it his own. East Side is not the quiet place for a quaint meal, it's a destination for people who love to laugh, drink, sing, and party hearty.

As you can see in this photo, I enjoyed myself on Saturday night. I went to East Side Restaurant, tucked away in a residential neighborhood off Route 9, at 131 Dwight Street in New Britain. We were celebrating my brother, Steve's, and my buddies, Phil and Paul's birthdays. We sat upstairs at a beautiful booth, equipped with a frozen strip of metal down the middle that was installed for you to keep your beer mugs ice-cold. We all drank the Warsteiner Pilsner, which, according to the menu, is Germany's largest selling beer. It was delicious! We also ordered a few of their meter boards, including their tasty chicken wings, the German Wurst sampler, and the potato pancake board too. Everything was excellent.

By about the middle of the second liter of beer, you feel pretty good, trust me. If you order a flight of shots, you get a t-shirt, and you get paddled. The staff mostly does the paddling, but there was a group of dudes hanging around the bar, and they were paddling each other. These were not love taps, they were taking huge whacks at each other, inflicting brutal Dazed and Confused style punishment. Oh, man, one guy got hit in the lower back by a drunken buddy, and he had to take a knee for a few to recover.

This just adds to the fun atmosphere at this wonderful, lively restaurant. You don't see people getting their butts paddled at Outback Steakhouse. If you're looking for a place to go this Summer, East Side Restaurant provides a great space to let loose, enjoy some excellent adult beverages, sing, get paddled, and grub down German/American cuisine.