New York, NYBeer Halls and Biergartens

A sprawling Austro-Hungarian beer hall that Time Out New York counts as a Brooklyn staple of nearly 20 years, split into three rooms: the main Hall, an open air Biergarten under a retractable roof, and the back Bier Haus. Big communal tables fill the room, live music plays, and a full grill turns out what Time Out calls tube shaped meat next to more than a dozen specialty taps. Order a liter and a plate from the grill. Saturday nights pack out early, so aim for the Bier Haus if the Hall is full.

Time Out New York calls this Astoria room one of the oldest beer gardens in New York, a Czech institution where the taps lean to pilsners and light lagers and the kitchen sends out sausage platters. Food prices sit low next to the beer, and Time Out reckons one sausage and fixings platter feeds two people. What the magazine likes is that the garden is not trying to be a thing, it just is. Order a half liter and a sausage platter, and arrive early on a weekend afternoon to claim a picnic table.

Time Out New York calls this the largest heated outdoor beer garden in Manhattan, a Lower East Side yard with twelve German beers on tap, a full bar and a menu that runs to sausages. Picnic tables, pretzels and schnitzel fill out the rest, and the heat lamps keep the garden going through winter, along with seasonal decor the magazine says the place commits to. It works for a group and runs late on Friday and Saturday. Order a half liter and a sausage plate.

Time Out New York calls this Greenpoint room a workhorse: a lot of open space, a staggering number of taps and bartenders who can keep up. Pours come by the half liter and the liter, and the gastropub menu has what the magazine calls a sausage game that is on point. Weekend days draw old friends with babies, and nights draw the rest of the neighborhood. Order a liter and a sausage, and pick your beer before the bartender reaches you when the bar is deep.

Fort Greene's German beer hall opened in 2009 as Der Schwarze Kölner and now runs under the shorter name. Time Out New York describes a neighborhood bar feel inside a German beer hall setup, with 18 beers on tap and a few small plates to keep you upright. Come on a weeknight and the room fills with regulars rather than visitors. Order the currywurst, which Time Out frames as the dish that saves a night out in Berlin the way a slice does here, and a half liter alongside it.