Best beer gardens
Booze a sunny day away at one of these outdoor drinking destinations.
Mon Apr 9 2012
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Photograph: Gabriela Herman
Bohemian Hall and Beer Garden
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Photograph: Lizz Kuehl
Berry Park
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Time Out, Gabriela Herman
Loreley
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Photograph: Gabriela Herman
Franklin Park
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Photograph: Marlene Rounds
Spuyten Duyvil
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Photograph: Gabriela Herman
The Garden at Studio Square
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Fourth Avenue Pub
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Photograph: courtesy The Gate
The Gate
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Photograph: Lizz Kuehl
Hot Bird
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Photograph: Noah Devereaux
La Birreria
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Mission Dolores' backyard. Photograph: Lizz Kuehl
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The Standard Biergarten
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Zum Schneider
Berry Park
- Price band: 2/4
- Critics choice
This Williamsburg beer hall is a bi-level behemoth, with a 3,500-square-foot ground floor and a roof deck that’s almost as large. Choose from one of 14 brews on tap (mostly German and Belgian drafts), then take in views of Manhattan and nearby McCarren Park.
- 4 Berry St, (at North 14th St)
Bohemian Hall and Beer Garden
- Price band: 1/4
- Critics choice
This authentic Czech beer garden offers plenty of mingle-friendly picnic tables, where you can sit while you sample cheap platters of sausage and a solid lineup of European and domestic beers (pints $6, pitchers $16). Though the huge, tree-canopied garden is open year-round, summer is the prime time to soak up some rays over a pint. Prost!
- 29-19 24th Ave, (between 29th and 31st Sts), 11102
d.b.a.
- Price band: 2/4
- Critics choice
The OG beer-lover’s mecca provides 250 brews, from the expensive (a Belgian kriek, or sour-cherry beer, goes for $25 per bottle) to the unpronounceable (Schlenkerla Rauchbier). Paralyzed by indecision? Think it over in the back garden (it’s open year-round). Also check out d.b.a.’s Williamsburg outpost, which offers a similarly excellent lineup of craft brews, plus a spacious back patio for warm-weather drinking.
- 41 First Ave, (between 2nd and 3rd Sts), 10003 • 113 North 7th St between Berry St and Wythe Ave, Williamsburg, Brooklyn
Der Schwarze Kölner
- Price band: 4/4
Fort Greene’s first German beer garden has the essentials in order. There are 18 brews on tap (crisp Radeberger Pilsner, easygoing Hofbräu Lager) and many more by the bottle. There are plenty of affordable, satisfying small plates to soak it all up, like Berlin’s classic currywurst, plus sidewalk seating.
- 710 Fulton St, (at South Oxford St)
The Diamond
- Price band: 2/4
- Critics choice
In a beer scene dominated by hoppy, high-alcohol brews, credit this madcap watering hole for championing session beers (most $6), a family of brews whose lower booze content makes them ideal for extended drinking. Unlikely picks such as the three-percent-ABV Berliner Weisse (Budweiser, by comparison, is 5 percent) will keep you buzzed but standing through an evening of rubber ring quoits in the back garden.
- 43 Franklin St, (between Calyer and Quay Sts)
Fourth Avenue Pub
- Price band: 1/4
- Critics choice
Generous happy-hour deals make this craft-beer haunt an inviting spot to play hooky. On weekdays from 3 to 8pm, the pub shaves $1 off any of its 27 drafts and its cask ale (normally $6), as well as all of its other booze. Explore options including small-batch releases from Long Island’s Greenport Harbor and San Francisco’s Speakeasy Ales and Lagers, then take your brew out to the hops-clad patio.
- 76 Fourth Ave, (between Bergen St and St. Marks Pl)
Franklin Park
- Price band: 2/4
- Critics choice
There’s a handsome bar made from oak and subway tiles inside this former mechanic’s garage, but the real scene is outdoors, where picnic tables packed with locals fill a concrete garden. Join them to sip one of a dozen drafts, like He’Brew’s crisp Coney Island Lager.
- 618 St. Johns Pl, (between Classon and Franklin Aves)
The Gate
- Price band: 1/4
- Critics choice
Beer just seems to taste better at this laid-back, bring-your-pet kind of joint—especially on the huge street-level deck. There’s a good chance your favorite brew will be on tap: Look out for frequent additions, as well as standbys like Brooklyn Lager and Guinness.
- 321 Fifth Ave, (at 3rd St), 11215
Hallo Berlin
- Price band: 1/4
This midtown German gem boasts one of the best beer gardens in Manhattan. Grab a table and wash down heaping platters of schnitzel and sausage with your choice of exotic beers, such as the smoky Köstritzer Black. Too crowded? Hallo also has a smaller outpost a few blocks away.
- 626 Tenth Ave (at 44th St), 10019 • 744 Ninth Ave between 50th and 51st Sts
Hot Bird
- Price band: 2/4
Twelve rotating beers flow from the taps at this former auto-repair garage. Go when it’s sunny and stake out a spot in the spacious front garden (a corner lot that, until recently, was home to several rusty old junkers).
- 546 Clinton Ave, (at Atlantic Ave)
La Birreria
- Price band: 2/4
- Critics choice
Biergartens are traditionally Bavarian, but Eataly’s retractable-roof-rocking brewpub is resolutely Italian. Drinkers can choose from nine Italian and American draft microbrews, unfiltered house brews made on the premises, nearly 30 bottled beers and a selection of wines on tap. Enjoy suds from Birra del Borgo and Birra Balading while savoring views of the Flatiron and Empire State Buildings.
- 200 Fifth Ave, (at 23rd St), 10010
Loreley
- Price band: 2/4
- Critics choice
Communal wooden tables and a well-shaded garden make Loreley an ideal day-drinking destination. A dozen German drafts are served in bulky liter steins ($14–$16) or in smaller glasses for those who sip a little slower. Its sister location, in Williamsburg, offers a similar list of Teutonic brews on draft and by the bottle.
- 7 Rivington St, (between Bowery and Chrystie St) • 64 Frost St at Meeker Ave, Williamsburg, Brooklyn , 10002
Mission Dolores
- Price band: 1/4
Wait, a desolate stretch of Fourth Avenue isn’t your ideal location for a gorgeous, alcohol-soaked afternoon? It doesn’t matter; after a few pints at this airy converted auto shop, you won’t want to leave. Canines and smokers are welcome in the courtyard. And the craft-beer labels—primarily American, with some European cameos such as Rodenbach Grand Cru—are uniformly excellent.
- 249 Fourth Ave, (between Carroll and President Sts)
Spuyten Duyvil
- Critics choice
The rotating list of more than 100 mostly European quaffs here could confound even the nerdiest of microbrew mavens. Flag down a bartender to help you navigate the menu, then take your brew—and a charcuterie snack—to the lush back garden.
- 359 Metropolitan Ave, (at Havemeyer St)
The Standard Biergarten
- Price band: 2/4
- Critics choice
Don’t let the Standard Hotel’s chic pedigree fool you. Everything on the menu here—from traditional German brews to brats, currywurst and pretzels—clocks in at an affordable $7. Claim a picnic table and get to work.
- 848 Washington St, (at 13th St, entrance on Little W 12th St at Washington St)
The Garden at Studio Square NYC
- Price band: 2/4
- Critics choice
Encompassing 20,000 square feet of outdoor space and with a capacity well above 1,200, Studio Square is more of a beer city than a beer garden. Patrons pack the sprawling yard, all guzzling half liters ($7), liters ($13) and pitchers ($18) of mostly German and American brews. Bear Republic Racer 5 IPA (half liter $7, pitcher $18) is a solid all-season refresher. Clouds or not, brats, burgers and other bites ($6–$11) are in order.
- 35-33 36th St, (between 35th and 36th Aves)
Zum Schneider
- Price band: 1/4
- Critics choice
Beer lovers and German expats from all over the city flock to this Bavarian party house, where the most hotly contested seats are out on the sidewalk under blue umbrellas. This prime people-watching spot—smack in the middle of Alphabet City—is tough to beat, especially when you’ve got a liter stein of beer in hand. Choose from a dozen German brews on tap plus more than ten bottles. After knocking back a few, you too will be shaking a tail feather.
- 107–109 Ave C, (at 7th St)
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