A hundred plus years ago, my German-born immigrant great-grandfather was allowed to venture out to his neighborhood beer garden in Brooklyn once a week by his Irish Catholic immigrant wife. She permitted him to have one beer and one beer only with his friends. With eight children at home, she wasn't about to have him blow his meager wages on drink. Forget the fact that it was his money that he'd earned -- believe you me, he obeyed his wife. He was well-trained.
Back then, beer gardens were the province of immigrant laborers like my great-grandfather, soaking up suds and memories of the Old Country with friends. Sometimes they even sang an old song like "Danny Boy" (although a German probably wouldn't sing that particular sing).
But as time went by, the immigrant beer gardens gradually disappeared from New York, replaced by bars, lounges, clubs, you name it. A beer garden? most New Yorkers thought. How quaint and old fashioned. How downscale. How ... lower class.
Well, that was then. Nowadays beer gardens have come back big time. They're popping up all over the city and the hip and the beautiful are flocking to them in droves. Forget those fancy nightclubs and chic bars serving overpriced fruity drinks -- they want beer! And they wanna drink it while sitting at big picnic tables in the open air! The new chic is ... the old country ... Plus ca change.
New York magazine has a listing of a few of the new beer gardens opening up in town. But for my money, the Bohemian beer garden in Astoria is still the best.
Back then, beer gardens were the province of immigrant laborers like my great-grandfather, soaking up suds and memories of the Old Country with friends. Sometimes they even sang an old song like "Danny Boy" (although a German probably wouldn't sing that particular sing).
But as time went by, the immigrant beer gardens gradually disappeared from New York, replaced by bars, lounges, clubs, you name it. A beer garden? most New Yorkers thought. How quaint and old fashioned. How downscale. How ... lower class.
Well, that was then. Nowadays beer gardens have come back big time. They're popping up all over the city and the hip and the beautiful are flocking to them in droves. Forget those fancy nightclubs and chic bars serving overpriced fruity drinks -- they want beer! And they wanna drink it while sitting at big picnic tables in the open air! The new chic is ... the old country ... Plus ca change.
New York magazine has a listing of a few of the new beer gardens opening up in town. But for my money, the Bohemian beer garden in Astoria is still the best.
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