Lot 13
“Many craft beers to satisfy all those with a different taste, and numerous big name beers for those old standbys.”
“Hoboken feel, great mixed crowd, good prices and he is developing a great food menu.”
“Was there last night with heather bartending with great knowledge of her beers and whisky and dave cooking up some phenomenal food, with couple friends.”
Lot 13
Take-out: Yes
Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
Bike Parking: Yes
Good for Groups: Yes
Good For Dancing: Yes
Happy Hour: Yes
Outdoor Seating: Yes
Has TV: Yes
Has Pool Table: Yes
Price range.
$$ Price range $11-30
4 reviews
Rate and write a review Cancel reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
There are a few diamonds in the rough of Bayonne, and Lot 13 is one of them. This place had the feel of a place back in Chicago with a killer punk dominated soundtrack. I think NJ locals would say it has a Hoboken feel. It's refreshing to be in a bar that encourages conversation over whatever is on the TV. They do have a couple TVs for those of you introverts on a field trip in public. They also have a back pool table area that keeps you from bumping into other people in the bar.
Speaking of bar, it's impeccably clean and fully stocked. The curated selection of craft and seasonal beers was great. Again, it was a nice surprise for me to find a place like Lot13 on Avenue E.
The food was no joke, either! While you'll find you typical bar food, I'm guessing the chicken nuggets were house cut and battered. The fried pickles completely embarrassed the ones I had at Bub City Barbecue on my last trip to Chicago. The coating was thin but seasoned well and the pickle wasn't a wimpy wafer. I could turn the Sriracha wings and fries into a meal. This place is an all around exceptional bar/grub/entertainment option around Bayonne. Unfortunately, like most business here, parking is limited on the street, but hopefully no one is drinking and driving home.
I really liked this place, I think it's the best that can happen for the neighborhood and I would love to give it maybe 3.5 stars if I could, but I surely can't round up to 4.
Lot 13 is your tried-and-true style craft beer pub with solid pub food and a pile of beer menus (it's pretty awesome they have them on the ceiling too – points for originality). The issue I had with the beer though, is that the inexpensive low ABV beers are served in tiny 8oz glasses (the way you would a high ABV or rare beer – although for an appropriate price for the size), is kind of unfulfilling when compared to the standard bar-pour 14oz "pint". The food is good – quality pub food, exactly what you'd want – but the problem is that it's priced higher than Manhattan. I ended up with a $100 tab having taken the girlfriend out for hot dogs & wings, with a few beers each.
I'd love to come back here again, but for that kind of money I can get a much nicer meal in the area than just hot dogs.
I'm really torn about my experience here.
On the one hand, I love that a place with decent craft beers exists in Bayonne. On the other, I think they need a serious reality check on some of their food and drink prices.
Let's start with the drinks. There's a lot going on on those ceiling and wall chalkboards, but I think the ceiling was just their bottle list. From what I could tell, all drafts came in a 10 ounce glass regardless of abv. The downside to that is you have to spend double to get a little over a pint. I did like that they offered some $5 specials, such as Troeg's Mad Elf and Six Point's Global Warmer. What I didn't like: two 10 ounce pours of Terrapin's Wake n Bake Imperial Stout came to $17.50…I don't think Barcade ever goes higher than $8 for even the rarest of beers. Also of note, one friend with us drank double Gentleman Jack and Cokes at $14 a pop..and felt that they were just a single amount of jack with extra coke.
Moving on to the food, there are some damn tasty items on the menu. The fresh cod fish and chips? Amazing and well worth the $13 price tag. The Lot 13 burger was deemed good by one friend, and so was the Lot 13 hot dog. The pricing on the dogs (with fries being about $2 extra) reminded me exactly of Crif Dogs and I'd be curious to see for myself how they hold up to one of my favorite places. The mac and cheese was really good and I thought $3.50 for a side of it was pretty fair. The Bavarian pretzel was monstrous, so $6.50 is also a pretty fair price. The wings. Sigh. I was so excited for the wings, and was so let down. The hot sauce was the best part..the wings themselves were a bit too gristly and were not worth $14 for a dozen. Absolutely no way…most places would charge $10 for a dozen.
The service was good, except we had to ask for an itemized bill after only being given our tab amount. For the amount of drinks and food we ordered I would think printing out an itemized bill would be a given.
The atmosphere had a cool dive-y feel which would definitely lure me back once in a while…I just don't see it becoming a part of my normal rotation. I'll keep Barcade for my usual.
On Friday night I grabbed a buddy and said: "I want a burger." He's always up for a food run. If it involves craft beer, all the better. He loves his beer.
Lot 13 wasn't crowded when we got there. The bartender gave us menus and told us that the pulled pork and the fish weren't available that evening, but I knew I was there for a burger, so that was all right. My date started with a Deviant Dale and I had a glass of white wine (best for low-carb, blah).
He loved the Deviant Dale IPA, said it was great. We ordered our burgers and that's when we found they were out of a couple of the listed cheese choices. I had asked for Muenster but took provolone, he wanted Swiss but took cheddar.
The soundtrack for the evening was 90s rock. Lots of Offspring, RHCP, Green Day, etc. Not bad.
So, the burgers. YUM! Just the way I like it! Charcoal grilled outside, juicy inside. They have a Green Egg! They sear these burgers well. The beef was fresh and top-notch, definitely a step (or two or three) above. Mine had provolone and bacon, his had cheddar with the works. After he said to me that this was probably in his top 10 burgers of all time.
They had some other interesting stuff on the menu. We're planning on going back. I'd like to try the lamb burger and the pulled pork.
Good service, good food.
Go try it out, see if you agree, and enjoy.