Loreley Williamsburg: Outdoor drinking awesomeness in NYC

Once summer arrives, New Yorkers love to head outside to drink, and biergartens are one of their favorite places to do it. Although many tourists stick to the island of Manhattan, a trip to Brooklyn to check out the new Loreley Williamsburg biergarten is well worth it.


I'm glad this place exists in such a convenient location (a short ride from Manhattan on the L subway), and it's definitely a less-hipstery "people under 25" outdoors option as compared to Union Pool, a less fancy, less beer-oriented option as compared to A Night of Joy, and a more-intimate and more-convenient option as compared to Berry Park. True, German food (which is served at Loreley) is totally inferior to pretty much any type of Mexican food (especially that amazing Union Pool taco truck), but they have table service (as it's really more of a restaurant), and if you like eating meat, well, there's certainly tons of that going on in various forms. During the World Cup, they even have these special little pretzel dough rolls filled with various things that are meant to represent the competing countries.


A great detail about this place is that the bar is built such that it's double-sided to serve both those sitting indoors and outdoors at the same time. It kind of reminds me of bars built into a pool at resorts, which then reminds me of being on vacation (sans the cheesiness)-- which is a really, really good trigger for people just tryin' to live their lives in this crazy dog-eat-dog world, er…I mean, who just want to grab a beer and relax for at least an afternoon.


I will say, however, that I stopped by during the USA vs. England World Cup soccer game, during which the place was pretty packed and the humidity level was totally insane. So I definitely learned one thing: brick walls, gravel and cement do NOTHING to keep a biergarten cool. It was hotter inside the biergarten than than it was directly outside its walls.


Loreley Williamsburg 64 Frost St. between Lorimer & Leonard Sts. [Williamsburg, Brooklyn]


If you're visiting New York City and want to check out Loreley Willimsburg, you may want to stay at Hotel Chelsea or The Jane Hotel, both of which are just a short subway ride away on the L train.


-- Anna G. from Broke-Ass Stuart's Goddamn Website


[Photo credit: wselman/Flickr]