Comments (3) Best Beer Garden - 2009
Radegast Hall and Biergarten
113 N. Third St.
Brooklyn, NY
718-963-3973
Now that Americans have rediscovered what beer is supposed to taste like, is it any wonder that the traditional setting is coming back, too? Beer gardens are popping up across the land, but owners know there's something they have to avoid when they open a new facility: the feeling of newness itself. The more your beer garden feels like it's a place where people have been hoisting giant mugs of ale for centuries on end, the better. And that's why we adore Brooklyn's Radegast Hall and Biergarten. Sure, the great list of German, Belgian, and Czech brews is on the money, but we especially love how the place was carved out of an old factory, creating a space that's half patio, half assembly line. You can't shake the feeling that pints have been drained here since the Great Depression. If, after polishing off the weisswurst and sauerkraut smothered with horseradish and mustard, you still aren't convinced that this place is authentic, keep your eyes peeled for the occasional mustache-growing or glass-carrying competition, which can win you round-trip tickets to the Eden of beer: Saxon lands.
