They’ll make your träume come true!
The owners of iconic Park Slope reception center Grand Prospect Hall have added a luxuriant German beer garden to their sprawling events facility, and the proprietors say sipping pilsners on their patio is a religious experience.
“It’s a place to come relax from the evil of the day, to withdraw from hell and be in heaven,” said Michael Halkias, who has run the hall with his wife Alice since 1981, famously boasting in television ads that their ornate auditorium will “Make your dreams come true!” “This is a heavenly space.”
The pair are opening the bar, dubbed the Brooklyn Bavarian Biergarten, in a lush yard filled with greenery and water fountains next to their legendary landmarked venue.
The owners say the garden was originally used as an outdoor drinking space when the hall first opened in the 1890s, and the theme is a nod to the German immigrants who frequented the venue at the time.
The Teutonic tavern, which officially opens its doors tonight, will offer a generous beer menu — including German imports Reissdorf, Krombacher, and Bitburger, plus local craft brews — as well as a fare from the fatherland that includes pretzels in both “soft” and “uber soft” varieties.
Halkias said he is thrilled to celebrate the hall’s heritage by bringing back brews and bratwurst, and claims those who have sampled the goods already have declared them “wunderbar!”
“The people were elated,” he said.
Most Brooklynites only visit the blinged-out banquet hall itself for special occasions, but the beer garden will be open six days a week all year long. Halkias says he has created an indoor area for when the weather turns appropriately alpine.
“If the sky gets upset and the water starts coming down, don’t go home,” he said. “I have a situation which is year-round.”
The is not the first hall-side venture the Halkiases have cooked up in recent years. The pair announced plans in 2011 to build an 11-story hotel in the venue’s parking lot, but angry neighbors fought back, and that particular dream remains unfulfilled.
Brooklyn Bavarian Biergarten [263 Prospect Ave. between Fifth and Sixth avenues in Park Slope, (718) 788–0777, www.brook
