Bar of the Week: Radegast Hall & Biergarten

After much ado about its retractable roof and delayed launches, Williamsburg's sprawling Czech lager barn Radegast Hall & Biergarten is open and bustling with a delightfully polyglot crowd of revelers. On a recent Wednesday evening, chaps who resembled the cousins of au courant celebs (Benicio Del Toro, James Franco, Dash Snow) were posted up at the copper-sheeted ziggurat bar alongside clusters of Hell's Angels, a Redbeard-ish fellow toting a toddler on his shoulders, and a J.R. Ewing lookalike in a business suit and enormous white Stetson. A sampling of jewel-toned beers (favorites were Kostritzer Schwarzbier, $7, and Dentergems Witbier, half-liters $6, liters $13, pitchers $18) and hearty fare proved ambrosial. From the steampunk chandeliers and gaslight sconces, milky-white beer taps and Viking ship wall nooks to the roasted pork tenderloin with prunes, potato dumplings and red cabbage ($16) and poppy-seed apple strudel ($6), the vast venue approaches hefe heaven despite Pauli-girl waitress frocks and a few spiny fish bones in the otherwise superb trout salad ($6). Palate-cleansing shots of schnapps ease patrons into the bewitching hours when one imagines the rowdy crowd might break into a rousing communal jig; a schnitzel-counter blazes sausages ($6–$12) till
2 a.m.; and the roofworks make Radegast a prime candidate for graduation affairs or the post-brunch sprawl. Singles trolling hunks rejoice: This saloon seems to beckon studmuffins like lambs to slaughter via a simple formula: rustic fortress + slew of tasty brews + wieners, wieners, wieners. 113 N. 3rd St., Brooklyn, (718) 963-3973