Former gas station now pumping suds as Biergarten

Williamsburg's known for celebrating its hardscrabble industrial past, converting its derelict warehouses into indie rock bowling alleys, cutting-edge organic restaurants, and other places nobody from the hardscrabble industrial past would ever go. For a place more in touch with its roots: Loreley Williamsburg

Setting up their second no-nonsense Old World bier hall in the shell of a defunct corner gas station that sits in the shadow of the BQE, the LES standby's new digs boast an 80-seat interior brightened by soaring sky-lit ceilings (made from reclaimed upstate barn wood) and imported Baltic maple tables, while the poured concrete bar overlooks a brick-fenced garden with communal seating set in a greens-lined gravel pit, which the Wu-Tang Clan would've invited you to check out if you weren't always inspecting decks. Traditional Deutsche noshes have made the trek, including signature oven-fresh pretzels, sausages served simply w/ mustard & rye, and baskets of curry-ketchup'd pork meatballs, while heartier fare includes sandwiches (the jagdwurst/Prague ham/garlic pepper salami/gouda Loreley Club) and a butcher's plate loaded w/ smoked pork chops, rib bacon, and smoked sausage, all on a bed of mashed potatoes and sauerkraut, who'll certainly perk up after witnessing the efficiency of your consumption. Courage comes from a limited selection of bottles (Augustiner Edlestoff, Erdinger...) and 12 rotating, oft-seasonal taps that fuel half- and full-liter steins with everything from their specialty Gaffel, to Schneider Weisse ("The Queen of German Beers"), to Reissdorf Kolsch, aka "the Cologne Insider beer" (odd, as historically, the people of Cologne went outside to get bombed)

Should ale be what ails you, there're also nine wines by the glass; specialty cocktails like the Captain Morgan/Cointreau/sour cinnamon/fresh OJ Zimtschnitte; and an array of spirits, from Barenjager, to Kirschwasser, to Jagermeister, any of which are perfect for escaping the Williamsburg present of hardcore industrial techno parties.