Berg'n: The Great Takeover?

Full Disclosure: I've yet to see Guardians of the Galaxy. I couldn't care less. I know. Amazing Marvel adaptation. Bradley Cooper plays a Raccoon. Vin Diesel revisits the role he's become famous for...a talking tree. I get it. The Guardians are a ragtag group guardianing our galaxy or some shit. There's an orb. Somebody wants to take over. There's always somebody who wants to take over.

Google wants to take over the internet. Transplants want to take over Park Slope. ISIS wants to take over pretty much everywhere. In the Brooklyn culinary sphere, the boom of hipsters & depression over the past decade has led to beer halls taking over the Brooklyn landscape. It's no ebola-sized infection, but in terms of square footage that I'm not willing to research & calculate, it's still notable.

I think back to 2008. Lil Wayne's The Carter III was about to sell a million copies in week one. WEEZY TAKING OVER. In this climate, Jonathan Butler & Eric Demby decided to start some thang in Ft Greene called the Brooklyn Flea. They added food. Locals flocked. Hipsters flocked. Six years later, they've become the guys behind a flea empire that expanded to Williamsburg & DUMBO, added "Smorgasbrewery" events at Brooklyn Brewery, expanded to D.C., failed in Philly & took over the Park Slope market at PS 321. Now, a half year after the initial anticipated March opening date, they've joined forces with the beer hall movement to open Berg'n, a Crown Heights beer hall on fuck you guess which street.

If you can’t figure it out, check out their branding & think harder.

When they opened back on the 27th, I made plans to go. Didn't happen. Had plans to meet there the next evening. Rain check. In retrospect, it worked out, as early reports were that everybody & their mother came by that first half week. The 6'9" guy at the front door noted that while the rate was 200 peeps/hr when I first stopped in a week after opening, they saw about 3000/day on their first weekend. There's a welcoming sign out front specifically addressed towards parents. I wonder what percentage of those 3000 were stupid bébés.

It's a fucking nice looking establishment, a 9000 sq. foot converted parking garage in that Crown Heights area near the Franklin stops where you're all like "I KNOW OPERATION SNOWFLAKE IS WELL UNDERWAY BUT THIS AREA IS SAFE BUT NOT SAFE." The indoor area features a long bar, four Brooklyn Flea veteran food vendors, a whole bunch of picnic tables & another section with a bunch of stools and, from like 8am to 8pm, Parlor coffee & Dough doughnuts. Outside, there's seating for about fifty. The walls are mostly rollup garage doors. I'm curious about when they'll actually end up opening them up.

Twas early evening post-work when the lady & I went there, so we definitely needed sustenance. I didn't get the special treatment like she did but, when you enter, there's apparently someone near the front door explaining how things work. It's not that complicated, people. There's table or bar service for drinks. For food, you get your lazy ass up & order from one of the vendors. They either give you your food then & there or they give you a thing with a number on it. You sit your fat ass back down & they come to you when it's ready.

We had all our stuff within ten minutes, trying food from three of the four vendors & skipping Pizza Moto. Sorry Pizza Moto. I'm still scared by the Hades-hot oven you always have at the Ft Greene Flea. It seems wrong to eat hot pizza from a hot oven on a hot summer day.

SIDE NOTE: I hope that the big 9/9 announcement that Apple has planned is that they've finally made it so you can take iPhone photos at night.

Since they spooned it out right when I ordered it, I started with a side of Sweet Potato Casserole ($3.50) from Mighty Quinn's. It's a good sized cup of sweet potato with visible pecans & brown sugar blended in. Sure it's only a side but as far as bar snacks go, it's substantial. Fuck sides though. Next time, I'm going back for their BBQ.

The lady grabbed some Asia Dog--a Beef Katsu Corn Dog ($6) & Fries ($4) with Kimchi Aioli. Since this is Brooklyn, the corn dog obviously came with a choice of Panko Crust or Korean Pancake coating. She went panko. Both the corn dog & the fries...Once again, fantastic bar snacks. Plus, I just got to use the word "panko" three times in a blog post.

If that's not edgy enough for you, you can always step two booths to the right & get something from Ramen Burger. After garnering cronut-sized lines at Smorgasburg, the Berg'n spot is their first physical location.

There was no line, so I went for it, ordering the Karaage Ramen Burger ($10), a chicken burger with ramen buns & a bunch of Japanese ingredients. Going in, I had no concept of how the ramen buns would be texture wise. I'm happy to report that they're basically the same consistency as a regular bun with obvious noodle qualities. The chicken was well flavored with a nice char.

Oh but wait...this is a beer hall, a beer hall with a high-priced but quite satisfactory draft & bottle selection. Of the dozen drafts & couple dozen bottles, we had bottles of the Great South Bay Blood Orange Ale ($7) & Bells Two Hearted Ale ($8) & an Other Half West Coast IPA ($8) on draft. All delicious as usual. Also, though I don't swing that way, they have a shitload of apparently good liquors. If for some stupid reason you don't want to get drunk, they totally have Brooklyn Flea sodas on tap.

That Wednesday evening, the space started off light & airy and got increasingly fuller & darker between 6:30pm & 8:30pm. By the time we left, it was 85% full. I heard the bartender tell another couple that they expected it to be mostly locals during the week with more people traveling there on the weekends. Somebody give me Vegas odds on when Jersey douches start taking over on the weekends.

There are officially three more weekends left in the summer. With so much more beer to drink & so much more food to sample before Autumn ruins everything, I'll definitely be back at Berg'n soon...likely on a Tuesday evening.

Berg'n, 899 Bergen St (btwn Classon & Franklin), Crown Heights, 8am-Late Tue-Sun