The Newburgh Brewing Company features communal tables, as well as table tennis, air hockey, corn-hole and a vast selection of board games. “There are plenty of games to keep my son entertained and the crowds are always super friendly,” says customer Daniel Terwilliger of Wallkill.
Babies + beer = wholesome family fun?
Before you pick up the phone a call Child Protective Services, just remember: like all good and fun things in life, they totally do it in Europe.
Luckily for us, more and more Hudson Valley brewers are honoring their beer ancestry and creating venues that the whole family truly can enjoy.
In central Europe, the biergarten has long been a highly
valued community and family gathering center hailing from 19th
century Bavaria. Before the age of refrigeration, beer could only be consumed
at cool temperatures during the winter. But brewers — and their customers —
developed a taste for cold suds. For a frosty mug anytime, breweries began
digging beer cellars into the banks of the River Isar (which flows through
Munich, Germany), planted shade-producing chestnut trees and laying out white
stones to deflect the sun’s hot rays. In 1812, an edict was issued allowing
brewers to sell retail quantities of beer from June until September.
The combination of the great outdoors and cooling
beverages was irresistible and soon, brewers realized that people were sticking
around for a lot longer than the time it took to order a beer “to-go.”
Soon, benches were added and customers began bringing
picnics, portable games and their children and spreading out for a whole day,
with a beer or two thrown in for good measure over the course of several hours.
(Today, it’s still standard operating procedure for the adults in the family to
order just one or two beers over a period of several hours at the biergarten in
Germany; getting snookered isn’t the point). Sandboxes and playgrounds were
built and drunken behavior was strictly frowned upon. Traditionally, headier
spirits were not served, though locally produced wines were often available.
Unlike traditional bars (a.k.a. kneipen), biergartens became one of the few public places created
for social interaction in which the lines established by the hierarchical
classist society of 19th century Bavaria disappeared. Families of
all backgrounds ate and played together and biergartens became such an
established cultural institution, laws were passed securing patrons’ rights to
consume their own food, further blurring class lines and enabling almost
everyone to partake in the fun. Upper and lower classes mingled freely.
Gemutlichkeit — or an atmosphere of wholesome, good living
and comfort — became the hallmark of Bavarian biergartens. Two hundred years
later, the tradition is being reinvigorated, with a special Hudson Valley,
foodie twist. Many of the wholesome, indoor and outdoor gardens they’ve created
have child-friendly games and food, and all come equipped with high chairs and
gemutlichkeit.
The Newburgh Brewing
Company
For the Newburgh Brewing Company, which opened its doors
in 2012 and is run by childhood best friends Christopher Basso (brewmaster and
CEO) and Paul Halayko (president and COO), family friendliness a part of its
DNA.
Basso, a former brewer at Brooklyn Brewery, and Halayko,
previously a CPA working for JP Morgan Chase Bank, grew up in Washingtonville
and launched the brewery (with financial support from 22 of their closest
friends and family) in with a desire to create innovative brews served in a
classic beer garden style, the chance to give back to the community (the
brewery employs 20 local workers and offers up its bars on Sundays to charities
that send in bartenders whose tips go to the cause they’re supporting).
“We knew we wanted to be in the Hudson Valley,” Halayko says.
“Newburgh was great because of its rich history as a hard-scrabble town and
it’s easily accessible from highways and the Hudson River. I spent a year in
Germany when I was a student and I knew I wanted to recreate that
family-friendly beer garden atmosphere with communal tables, games and a spirit
of hospitality that makes people feel like they can camp out for five hours and
just drink one beer. We never have waiters hovering, trying to flip tables.”
Instead, they have a 20,000-square-foot, sun-filled steam
engine factory space, right on the Hudson River. There’s table tennis, air
hockey, corn-hole and a vast selection of board games that hark back to an 80’s
childhood (they even have Twister!) There is a rotating selection of eight
seasonal Newburgh brewery beers on tap and a rotating selection of art for sale
from local artist, all of which help imbue the indoor garden with a playful,
innocent sense of fun.
“We don’t serve hard alcohol because it’s easier to get
over-served that way,” says Halayko. “We want the whole family to feel
comfortable and we made a decision early on the skip the hard stuff. We also
wanted to make food a priority, and provide options for people that are sourced
from Hudson Valley farmers and are as good as the beers.”
The taproom offers a selection of food that varies
depending on the season, but guests can always count on great, classic beer
garden food, including pretzels, sausages and the best French Fries (plain,
Rosemary Garlic or Chili, served with house-made ketchup) east of the Isar.
Customer Daniel Terwilliger of Wallkill says he is
relieved to find a place that the whole family can enjoy.
“Newburgh Brewing Company is a great place I can bring my
family and enjoy some great beer and food,” says Terwilliger, the father of a
19-month-old and regular at the brewery. “There are plenty of games to keep my
son entertained and the crowds are always super friendly.”
Hyde Park Brewing
Company
The Hyde Park Brewing Company, established in 1995,
evokes the come-as-you-are atmosphere of a beer garden, but with the more
traditional bells and whistles found in an old-fashioned American restaurant
(that just happens to have great live music nights, a rotating selection of 8
handcrafted Hyde Park brews and trivia nights).
The food skews German (think baby beer brat sliders and
bratwurst) with local shout-outs (coach farms cheese platters) and plenty of
mini me palate pleasers (mac and cheese, pizza). Hyde Park serves as kind of
gateway biergarten for Hudson Valley families that want to dip their toes into
the gemutlichkeit.
Hyde Park’s proximity to FDR’s homestead also helps. Roosevelt,
a great booster of family fun and the man indirectly responsible for the
presence of beer in the Hudson Valley, would surely approve of the blossoming
Hudson Valley beer gardens. For a full family day outing, pop into the old
homesteads of FDR, wife Eleanor Roosevelt or Isaac Roosevelt (FDR’s
grandfather) before raising one to the FDR who said “I think this would be a
good time for a beer,” as he signed the 21st amendment repealing
Prohibition in 1933.
Check out more
family-friendly beer gardens
in the Hudson Valley
Kathleen Willcox is
a freelance writer living in Carmel with her husband and 1-year-old twins.
The
Newburgh Brewing Company features communal tables, as well as table tennis, air hockey, corn-hole
and a vast selection of board games. “There are plenty of games to keep my son
entertained and the crowds are always super friendly,” says customer Daniel
Terwilliger of Wallkill.
Babies + beer = wholesome family fun?
Before you pick up the phone a call Child Protective
Services, just remember: like all good and fun things in life, they totally do
it in Europe.
Luckily for us, more and more Hudson Valley brewers are honoring
their beer ancestry and creating venues that the whole family truly can enjoy.
In central Europe, the biergarten has long been a highly
valued community and family gathering center hailing from 19th
century Bavaria. Before the age of refrigeration, beer could only be consumed
at cool temperatures during the winter. But brewers — and their customers —
developed a taste for cold suds.
For a frosty mug anytime, breweries began
digging beer cellars into the banks of the River Isar (which flows through
Munich, Germany), planted shade-producing chestnut trees and laying out white
stones to deflect the sun’s hot rays.
In 1812, an edict was issued allowing
brewers to sell retail quantities of beer from June until September.
The combination of the great outdoors and cooling
beverages was irresistible and soon, brewers realized that people were sticking
around for a lot longer than the time it took to order a beer “to-go.”
Soon, benches were added and customers began bringing
picnics, portable games and their children and spreading out for a whole day,
with a beer or two thrown in for good measure over the course of several hours.
(Today, it’s still standard operating procedure for the adults in the family to
order just one or two beers over a period of several hours at the biergarten in
Germany; getting snookered isn’t the point). Sandboxes and playgrounds were
built and drunken behavior was strictly frowned upon. Traditionally, headier
spirits were not served, though locally produced wines were often available.
Unlike traditional bars (a.k.a. kneipen), biergartens became one of the few public places created
for social interaction in which the lines established by the hierarchical
classist society of 19th century Bavaria disappeared. Families of
all backgrounds ate and played together and biergartens became such an
established cultural institution, laws were passed securing patrons’ rights to
consume their own food, further blurring class lines and enabling almost
everyone to partake in the fun. Upper and lower classes mingled freely. Gemutlichkeit — or an atmosphere of wholesome, good living
and comfort — became the hallmark of Bavarian biergartens.
Two hundred years
later, the tradition is being reinvigorated, with a special Hudson Valley,
foodie twist.
Many of the wholesome, indoor and outdoor gardens they’ve created
have child-friendly games and food, and all come equipped with high chairs and
gemutlichkeit.
The Newburgh Brewing
Company
For the Newburgh Brewing Company, which opened its doors
in 2012 and is run by childhood best friends Christopher Basso (brewmaster and
CEO) and Paul Halayko (president and COO), family friendliness a part of its
DNA.
Basso, a former brewer at Brooklyn Brewery, and Halayko,
previously a CPA working for JP Morgan Chase Bank, grew up in Washingtonville
and launched the brewery (with financial support from 22 of their closest
friends and family) in with a desire to create innovative brews served in a
classic beer garden style, the chance to give back to the community (the
brewery employs 20 local workers and offers up its bars on Sundays to charities
that send in bartenders whose tips go to the cause they’re supporting).
“We knew we wanted to be in the Hudson Valley,” Halayko says.
“Newburgh was great because of its rich history as a hard-scrabble town and
it’s easily accessible from highways and the Hudson River. I spent a year in
Germany when I was a student and I knew I wanted to recreate that
family-friendly beer garden atmosphere with communal tables, games and a spirit
of hospitality that makes people feel like they can camp out for five hours and
just drink one beer. We never have waiters hovering, trying to flip tables.”
Instead, they have a 20,000-square-foot, sun-filled steam
engine factory space, right on the Hudson River. There’s table tennis, air
hockey, corn-hole and a vast selection of board games that hark back to an 80’s
childhood (they even have Twister!) There is a rotating selection of eight
seasonal Newburgh brewery beers on tap and a rotating selection of art for sale
from local artist, all of which help imbue the indoor garden with a playful,
innocent sense of fun.
“We don’t serve hard alcohol because it’s easier to get
over-served that way,” says Halayko. “We want the whole family to feel
comfortable and we made a decision early on the skip the hard stuff. We also
wanted to make food a priority, and provide options for people that are sourced
from Hudson Valley farmers and are as good as the beers.”
The taproom offers a selection of food that varies
depending on the season, but guests can always count on great, classic beer
garden food, including pretzels, sausages and the best French Fries (plain,
Rosemary Garlic or Chili, served with house-made ketchup) east of the Isar.
Customer Daniel Terwilliger of Wallkill says he is
relieved to find a place that the whole family can enjoy.
“Newburgh Brewing Company is a great place I can bring my
family and enjoy some great beer and food,” says Terwilliger, the father of a
19-month-old and regular at the brewery. “There are plenty of games to keep my
son entertained and the crowds are always super friendly.”
Hyde Park Brewing
Company
The Hyde Park Brewing Company, established in 1995,
evokes the come-as-you-are atmosphere of a beer garden, but with the more
traditional bells and whistles found in an old-fashioned American restaurant
(that just happens to have great live music nights, a rotating selection of 8
handcrafted Hyde Park brews and trivia nights).
The food skews German (think baby beer brat sliders and
bratwurst) with local shout-outs (coach farms cheese platters) and plenty of
mini me palate pleasers (mac and cheese, pizza). Hyde Park serves as kind of
gateway biergarten for Hudson Valley families that want to dip their toes into
the gemutlichkeit.
Hyde Park’s proximity to FDR’s homestead also helps. Roosevelt,
a great booster of family fun and the man indirectly responsible for the
presence of beer in the Hudson Valley, would surely approve of the blossoming
Hudson Valley beer gardens.
For a full family day outing, pop into the old
homesteads of FDR, wife Eleanor Roosevelt or Isaac Roosevelt (FDR’s
grandfather) before raising one to the FDR who said “I think this would be a
good time for a beer,” as he signed the 21st amendment repealing
Prohibition in 1933.
Kathleen Willcox is
a freelance writer living in Carmel with her husband and 1-year-old twins.