The Great American Ale Trail - Christian DeBenedetti [122]
EAGLE PROVISIONS
628 5th Ave. • Brooklyn, NY 11215 (718) 499-0026 • Established: 1940s
SCENE & STORY
The neighborhood around this cluttered old institution is alternately referred to as Windsor Terrace, South Slope, South Park Slope, and Greenwood Heights. It’s a crossroads of sorts, but also a premiere destination because of the Old White Eagle Market, aka Eagle Provisions, a historic Polish grocery specializing in house-smoked meats: wursts, great kielbasa, sausages, and the like. It also boasts what is likely New York City’s biggest retail beer selection: 1,500 varieties and counting.
The entrance is cluttered with house-plants beneath the hand-painted sign with its martial-looking red eagle, and once inside, visitors are greeted by a statue of the Virgin Mary, various Polish flags, pictures of at least one pope, and cute and always-bored checker girls in their candy stripe aprons. Then co-owner John Zawisny or his brother guides you from there to the front right corner with its imponderable number of bottles, organized by country, looming floor to ceiling. It’s not all refrigerated, but it’s not far too dusty either—a sign that the beer moves with some regularity (still, check dates for lesser-strength bottles). And there you will wander around until the cows come home. It’s a joy to visit (and is also en route to the verdant vistas of Greenwood Cemetery), not least because it offers a glimpse of that long ago time before groceries became all too perfect, hawking every shade-grown tofu and organic wheatgrass-infused whim of the moment.
PHILOSOPHY
Produce? What’s that for, again? Fruits and vegetables play second, maybe third fiddle here. Both fancy and everyday Eastern European foods shine instead, from dark breads to potted pork products, pickled vegetables, sauerkraut, pierogi, sodas and juices and other assorted mysteries in jars and cans of all shapes and sizes.
KEY BEER
With rarities in all shapes (even some minikegs) and beers from obscure breweries like Haandbryggeriet and Nøgne Ø (Norway), and Oude Beersel, Hanssens, Fantome, and Cantillon (all Belgian), not to mention a superb selection of U.S. craft brews, and Czech, Lithuanian, Polish, and even strange South American and Caribbean beers, this is nothing less than a beer geek smorgasbord. Budget some extra time for a visit here, and make sure to bring some kielbasa and mustard to the party afterward, okay?
RADEGAST HALL & BIERGARTEN
113 N. 3rd St. • Brooklyn, NY 11211 • (718) 963-3973 radegasthall.com • Established: 2007
SCENE & STORY
This Austro-Hungarian style beer hall, built into a couple of transformed old warehouse spaces by Slovakian friends Ivan Kohut and Andy Ivanov, is named for an ancient Slavic deity of hospitality, and its interior seems like it was airlifted out of nineteenth-century Budapest. In the darkened entry room is a unique, polygonal bar with high stools and gleaming taps and atmospheric chandeliers overhead. But it’s out in the next room, a great-hall-type affair with communal benches and skylights overhead, that most evenings seem to unfold. With a smoking grill station in the back and dirndl-clad bar-maidens weaving around the room, steins in hand, it’s easy to feel transported. It gets absolutely packed on weekend nights, so the thing to do is to come in the afternoon for some fortifying fare, and stake out some territory—the tables fill up quick. At the same time, it can be a nice way to meet other New Yorkers.
PHILOSOPHY
It might appear to be a mere nostalgia fest, but the owners have made sure to lay in much more than the obvious in terms of beer, too. There are thirteen drafts on tap and fifty-eight beers by the bottle, with some pretty adventurous choices. This is an excellent place for larger groups to convene and settle in for some brats and beer, provided it’s not Friday or Saturday night at 10:30 p.m.
KEY BEER
Schlenkerla Helles (in bottle). It’s a fairly standard, straw-colored lager from Bamberg, Germany, but because it’s brewed where smoked malts are used for other, bigger beers,