Rating: ****
Well, a Memorial Day isn't complete without some quality family time. After we went to the East River Park, my husband, daughter and I sauntered over to the Radegast Hall & Biergarten in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. What's wonderful about this establishment is that it is both all about beer and totally kid-friendly, too. Sounds like a paradox, no?
We've been there a few times, for both brunch and for dinner, and the staff is friendly, the beer is great and the food is good too. There's a dark, intimate restaurant/bar side, with cozy booths, a labyrinthian bar and candle-lit tables, and a bright biergarten side, with huge skylights 20 feet up (which were removed for open-air ambiance today) and long communal tables.
The food is good in general, sometimes great. The standouts are their enormous pretzels (served with delicious sweet/hot mustard and cornichons) and their fries. Today I had a bratwurst, which was good, but I've definitely had better (I'm a Stassenfest/Oktoberfest veteran from Midwestern German stock).... The skin-on fries which are perfectly sized (not too skinny, not too fat) were hot, crispy and delicious. We devoured the fries while waiting for the sausages.
What's a bit of a pain is that the grill is self-serve -- so if you want any bratwurst, fries or sausage, you have to walk over to the grill, place your order and wait at your table. The grill master wasn't too busy, so he took our orders over to us when they were done, but I think you're supposed to check on them yourself. They have other food that's on the menu and ordered from a server...more expensive, more fancy, but not necessarily better than the hearty grill fare. One time for brunch I had the eggs with potato pancakes, thick-cut bacon and apple horseradish relish -- it was quite tasty, especially the potato pancakes and bacon.
We've only gone to dinner there once. I had the smoked pork chop with spinach mashed potatoes and cabbage. It was an enormous portion -- I shared my meal with daughter (I think we called the cut-up pork "chicken" and she liked it) and there was plenty to spare. The pork chop was smoky in flavor, juicy and thick -- quite good. I used to hate eating pork chops as a kid because they were always so dry -- now it's a fun change of pace, but I only trust a few restaurants for good chops (nearby Fanny also has an excellent pork chop).
They serve .5 L tall glasses and enormous1 L mugs of of beer. I prefer the half-liter glasses, because even if I want that much, the liter mugs would get warm too quickly for me to enjoy it. My favorite draft beers are the Schneider Weisse and the Franziskaner Hefe-Weizen. The Franziskaner Hefe-Weizen is a wheat beer, but its a lot more citrusy and tart than others I've had. The Schneider Weisse is a nice medium amber beer that has interesting spice notes, but goes down very smooth and is not bitter on the tongue.
Back to the kid-friendly aspect. I'd say 50% of the seated parties today had either infants, toddlers or kids with them. It's refreshing to be among your peers, yet be with your kids and not feel like you're in a pizza parlor or a McDonalds. The mood at Radegast is joyous...the sun was shining, the beer was cold and everyone was having a great time. It made for a memorable Memorial Day.
http://www.radegasthall.com/
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