The Best “Biergartens” (Beer Gardens)
“Biergartens” or beer gardens have been popping up all over. What’s so great about beer gardens you ask? There is available fresh beer flowing out of cool breweries for the taking. Here is a guide to some of the freshest and best beer gardens in the area. A good beer garden might leave you wondering why you’re not spending every weekend drinking out of a stein.
Pilsener Haus, in a nondescript warehouse on the edge of Hoboken, offers a bit of secret-club appeal; it’s one of those places you almost can’t find. At dusk, when the last of the day’s sunlight filters through the casement windows and bounces off the exposed brick walls, you feel a kinship with the European day laborer. It’s a good feeling. At night, the place rocks, as if everybody in town had gathered here. Pilsener Haus has hired an executive chef, Thomas Ferlesch, a Vienna native with a distinguished resume. The Austro-Hungarian menu includes charcuterie, späetzle, mushroom strudels and, for Oktoberfest, roasted pork shank, fried calf’s head and smoked blood sausage strudel, to be paired with German brews such as Jever Pilsener, Hofbräu and Köstritzer. Pilsener Haus and Biergarten, 1422 Grand Street, Hoboken; (201)?683-5465.
At Zeppelin Hall in Jersey City seating adheres to the communal tradition. Outside, lines of wooden plank tables, some as long as 40 feet, stripe the 12,000-square-foot beer garden, where a bartender fills mugs with European and American pilsners and lagers, wheat beers and craft brews. The interior includes three rooms, each with its own bar, and two open-window grills at which customers order from the half-German, half-American menu (there is no table service.) A sausage sampler, $11.95, includes three varieties (choices include bratwurst, kielbasa, Andouille, chicken bratwurst and cheese bratwurst); the cheese spaetzle ($6.95) is served with a small side salad. Zeppelin Hall Restaurant and Biergarten, 88 Liberty View Drive, Jersey City; (201) 721-8888.
The Biergarten at The Standard Hotel is in a great location. Since it has opened, it has been a cool fixture for the city scene. Their all-German and Austrian lineup of beers, Ayinger Weisse and Köstritzer Dark Bier are crowd favorites. Enjoy that while savoring their currywurst and other very German eats. Don’t be surprised to find yourself waiting in a line at 2:00pm. The Standard, 848 Washington Street, New York, NY.
Birreria is a massive roof-top brewery and a Flatiron District hot spot. Sitting on top of popular Italian eatery, Eataly, this beer garden boasts a space of 8,000 square feet with 300 seats available. Its old-world Italian style is alive but not in a way to alienate younger guests. The venue offers a retractable roof to cool guests down, not to mention their unfiltered house brews made on the premises. La Birreria, 200 5th Avenue, New York, NY.
If you are going to or from a Mets game, stop in at the Bohemian Beer Garden in Astoria, Queens. The last original remaining Beer Garden in all of NYC, it is run and managed by the Bohemian Citizens’ Benevolent Society of Astoria. To say that Bohemian Hall & Beer Garden is a beloved place to gather, drink and schmooze is an understatement–this place is a true Astorian institution and has been one for 100 years. Bohemian Hall packs several hundred people in their extensive outdoor garden in warm spring and summer months. 29-19 24th Avenue, Astoria, NY. 718.728.9278
