It's been nine years since Zum Schneider debuted on Avenue C, kindling a minor craze for German beer gardens. This being New York City, many are entirely indoors. Now you can snack on sausages with a foamy stein at a dozen rollicking places in the Lower East Side, Astoria, Williamsburg, Fort Greene, and the West Village. But in Brighton Beach? I was incredulous when I spotted KeBeer one evening as I descended from the Q train. The place sat at the foot of Coney Island Avenue, in a storefront formerly occupied by Eastern Feast, one of the city's earliest slingers of Uzbek charcoal-grilled kebabs.
In fact, the 2000 Village Voice Best Of issue touting Eastern Feast still hangs on the wall, though the rest of the interior has been transformed completely. Big picture windows now look out on downtown Brighton Beach, where, unaccountably, two branches of Chase Bank face off against each other across the same intersection. KeBeer's décor is positively medieval, with white tiles clinging to the wall behind a bar sprouting beer taps, and dark wood shrouding the balance of the sizeable room. Black iron fixtures with guttering candles dangle from the ceiling, and, as you go downstairs in search of the bathrooms, you can't avoid the impression that you might find yourself in a dungeon.
Read more at http://www.villagevoice.com/
No comments:
Post a Comment