I met up with Megan and her friends Bonnie (celebrating a birthday), João (did I spell that right?) and Claire at Radegast Hall & Beer Garden, an Austro-Hungarian themed beer hall in Williamsburg with extremely high ceilings, crazy Czech music and long communal tables made from 150-year-old barn wood. It’s billed as “authentic” which I think refers to the fact that the servers wear dirndls. There a dozen beers on tap and I most enjoyed the Hofbräu Dunkel dark lager, a century-old favorite in Munich, that boasts a smooth and malty taste with caramel undertones and a welcome 5.5 percent alcohol by volume. We had two pitchers. We also tried the Spaten Oktoberfest, the Weihenstephaner Dunkel (both also from Germany) and the Gösser Pilsner from Austria, my appreciation for which was ranked in the order in which we drank them, which was pretty convenient.
Pitchers are pricey at $18 a pop, the menu entrees equally so, though a nice, more cost-effective substitute is to get some wurst, sauerkraut and fries from the overworked dudes in the back by the grill. The ordering system is abysmal. I put in my order and was told twice to stop back “in five minutes,” at which times my bratwurst was still sputtering on the grill. When I returned the second time, the grill area was overrun with an impatient clot of hipsters waving their hands and trying to get in their orders, so I muscled to the front and fortunately the beleaguered cook remembered me and tossed my food my way. The fries were for Megan, a vegetarian, and the sole meatless option on the menu, excepting the streusel, which I’m told doesn’t have much meat in it.
João told us of a recent trip to Suriname, which necessitated a break in the conversation as we tried to guess the location of this alleged country. South America, as it turns out; João showed us a map on his Blackberry after we expressed incredulity.
Deciding we hadn’t punished our livers enough, we took the L back into Manhattan and emerged at First Avenue where some girl was puking violently at the base of the “Manhattan Only” subway sign. A guy with a can-you-believe-this? look held back her hair and shouted at random passerby, “Welcome to New York!” At Jimmy’s No. 43 on E. 7th Street we ordered additional beer and random food (apple-horseradish couscous, bread pudding and a cheese plate that had more sliced apples, pears and Carr’s crackers on it than cheese).
Radegast Hall & Beer Garden
- 113 N 3rd St. (between Bedford Avenue and Berry Street), Brooklyn
- (718) 963-3973
- Meal 1 of 52: two links of bratwurst, sauerkraut and fries ($9)