This weekend we visited Hoboken’s Pilsener Haus & Biergarten.  It’s a Austro-Hungarian-style beer hall, with a small beer garden, restaurant, and grill, located in the far-flung northern end of town.

The tap selection includes the usual Bavarian suspects (Hofbräuhaus Helles and Dunkel, Weihenstephan and Paulener Hefe, etc.), a few northern German options (Kölsch, Alt, Radeberger Pils), and a few Belgian drafts as well.  They also have an excellent assortment of European bottles, as well as a small sampling of American craft brews.  Overall, the selection is excellent.  The bartenders were not particularly careful about glassware- three orders of the same beer came in three different .5L mugs- but otherwise the draft service was perfect.

The food was quite good- we tried an assortment of sausages from the grill and a Wiener Schnitzel from the kitchen.  The pretzel was fantastic (and I admit I consider myself a bit of a pretzel snob).  The table service was good, and the atmosphere was boisterous and fun.

Interestingly, we came on “family fun day,” which meant there were several dozen small children running around, and most of the music was geared to the kids (we learned to tell time, and how to spell words like “dog” and “hat”).  The presence of the kids in no way negatively affected our experience, but the waitress in any case promised us that “family fun day” happens only once a month.  Amusingly, she had a few flour hand-prints on her clothes, the location of which suggests that she had been engaging in some “family fun” of her own, maybe with the pretzel baker?

Good food, good beer, excellent atmosphere- we’ll definitely be returning to the Pilsener Haus soon.