Great Beer Gardens Around the World

Oct 29, 2012 — For beer fans and lager lovers, a great beer garden can be heaven on earth. With traditions dating back hundreds of years, beer gardens around the world have perfected the art of serving cold steins of booze in park-like settings where patrons crowd wooden benches under tree canopies for real food, good beer, and friendly conversation.

In Europe, centuries-old beer gardens are national monuments and living museums of cultural heritage. Some have served royalty while others take up sprawling sections of city parks, welcoming thousands of visitors each day. With classic Bavarian music and authentic food, a drink at a beer garden in Europe is like taking a step back in time. While over in the US, Europeans brought their time-honored drinking traditions with them, establishing old beer gardens that continue to tell community stories with mugs of dark lager and pounding polka.

Whether you’re looking to take part in age-old drinking customs or just want a place to bring your own food and relax, there’s sure to be a beer garden for you. So grab a stein and pull up a plate of bratwurst at one of these great beer gardens around the world.

1
Seehaus im Englischer Garten

Beer Garden / Drinking Activity / Restaurant
Ideally situated on the edge of a small lake in the Englischer Garten, Seehaus is a traditional beer garden with one of the loveliest settings in town. Its serene location and more intimate size attracts a posher crowd than many of the city’s beer gardens, making it perfect for a peaceful afternoon or evening of good company and conversation. In
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Munich

Kleinhesselohe 3
80802 Munich

089 3816130
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2
Hirschgarten

Beer Garden / Park / Restaurant
Less than a mile south of the famed Nymphenburg Palace, tree-lined Hirschgarten is a testament to duality: a simple but beautiful park arm-in-arm with one of the largest beer gardens in the entire world. Harkening back to its former incarnation as a hunting ground for noblemen, deer still roam a feeding area near the original hunting lodge, itself
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Munich

De-la-Paz-Straße 80639 Munich

Beer Garden/Restaurant: 089 17999119
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3
The Biergarten at The Standard Downtown

Beer Garden / Rooftop Bar
Perched on the east corner of the ultra-mod Standard Hotel’s rooftop is a surreal German wonderland called The Biergarten, where a kitschy ticket booth marks the entrance and $8 buys an oversized paper ticket – the only currency accepted in this adult carnival. Beer-hungry bros, flannel-clad hipsters, and fashionistas who got
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Los Angeles

The Standard Hotel
550 South Flower Street
Los Angeles, CA 90071

213‑892‑8080
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4
Zella

Bar / Beer Garden / Club / Restaurant
Part upscale bar, part restaurant, part club, and part bountiful beer garden, Zella is either the greatest thing since sliced bread or is suffering from multiple-personality disorder – either way, patrons come in droves to drink, flirt, and drink some more. A deceivingly small entrance in the simple brick façade leads to an expansive room with
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Chicago

1983 North Clybourn Avenue
Chicago, IL 60614

773‑549‑2910
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5
Prater Garten

Beer Garden / Beer Hall / Drinking Activity / Historic Restaurant
The oldest beer garden in Berlin, Prater Garten has been around since 1837 and features its own unique beers, Prater Pils and Prater Schwarzbier (black beer). The establishment’s long history – Prater survived bombing raids during World War II and the Soviet rule of East Berlin – has made it a local institution, and its thousand
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Berlin

Kastanienallee 7-9
10435 Berlin

030 4485688
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6
Berry Park

Beer Garden
Rooted on a rapidly gentrifying but still industrial stretch of Berry Street, Berry Park brings a spacious garden of beer to Brooklyn. Big steins of Germany’s finest (and a few other Euro imports) are the primary beverage for the groups of casual friends that perpetually pack the sparse rooftop’s communal tables, downing mugs to the backdrop of
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New York

4 Berry Street
New York, NY 11211

718‑782‑2829
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7
Zeitgeist

Beer Garden / Dive Bar
Born as a biker haven, Zeitgeist has evolved into an institutional dive that attracts everyone from Harley loyalists to skinny-jeaned bike messengers with its mix of surly bartenders, solid beer selection, and expansive graffiti-laden courtyard. Beneath the venue’s unmistakable logo – a Playboy bunny with a skull instead of a rabbit’s head – thick
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San Francisco

199 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94103

415‑255‑7505
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Author: Daniel Baker
Links: Beer Gardens in Los Angeles Beer Gardens in Munich Beer Gardens in NYC
Tags: Beer Garden, German Food, German Beer, Belgian Beer, Beer on Tap, Beer Lovers, Specialty Beer, Culture, Food & Drink, Travel

1 User Comments

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Sam A. Oct 30, 2012

Surprisingly, there are some great beer gardens in NYC. There's nothing like hitting a beer garden on a nice fall day. Berry Park is awesome. I can't wait to hit up some of the beer gardens in Munich.