The Early Word on BeerParc, The Eventi's New Beer Garden

BeerParc, Jeffrey's Chodorow's outdoor beer garden at the Eventi Hotel, opened last week with stalls from a few big-name vendors, including Harold Dieterle, Ed Brown, and Zak Pelaccio's Fatty Snack. The early word indicates that the ambiance is perfect for warm weather, but logistics and maintenance need improvement. The food is often hit or miss:

The Logistical Flaws: The self-proclaimed lushes at Midtown Lunch lamented the lack of selection for a beer garden and regulations separating beer from other cocktails: "Apparently, cocktails are only available at another bar upstairs, which doesn’t take tickets as payment. And you’re not allowed to take the beer from the garden up to that bar. Weak." And though $6 is a standard price for a tap microbrew like Southampton Double White, the same price applies to cans of PBR and Modelo: "I’m not really sure in what world I’d drop $6 for a canned beer, but it certainly isn’t this one. Sorry." [Midtown Lunch]

The Bad News: Initial negative response was mostly focused on the confusing ticket system, and worries that lines will just get longer. Mouthfuls reviewer Rail Paul describes: "I had my tickets, the guy ahead of me didn't, so the server pulled his beer, put it aside, and he came back after waiting on line 2 to buy tickets. There's no signage indicating the procedures, and it's not wholly intuitive." On that note, the upkeep also drew a thumbs down: "The courtyard staff did a lousy job cleaning and removing the litter which people did deposit in the large waste bins. These were overflowing when we arrived, and were overflowing when we left. " and "The rest rooms were filthy, and lacking toilet paper, some paper towel dispensers were empty. For a place less than a week old, it suggests zero on site management attention to details." [Mouthfuls]

The Mixed Bag News: Erin Zimmer of Serious Eats gives a split review with a slideshow of specialties from most of the vendors. Praise comes mostly to the creations of Edi and the Wolf, especially the Käsekrainer, a "Polish-style sausage stuffed with molten gruyere that's ready to ooze out when you bite into it." Ed Brown and Fatty Snacks dishes were hits or misses: "While $12 is definitely on the friendlier end of lobster roll price tags, this wasn't the best use of four tickets. The lobster hunks are drenched in a weird lemon-zesty mayo and the Nueske's bacon on top is chewy, almost to the point of stale jerky chewy." Zimmer describes the beef brisket sandwich of Fatty Snacks: "Eesh, no thanks. Far too much shrimp paste. Everything tasted like.. shrimp paste." And on their pork hot dog: "we were expecting a juicy but firm sausage with a little tug from the casing, but what we got was mushy meat paste spilling out." [Serious Eats]

The Kinky News: A Yelper visits on day three and files the following: "Went the third day that BeerParc was open. So they were working out the kinks. And there were A LOT of them. Only 2 of the 5 taps worked. The rest were all foam. They said it was because of the temperature outside. While it was hot (85 degrees), it was nowhere near as hot as it will be in the summer. Not sure how they're gonna solve that problem. They did make up for it by giving us 8 free beers. And the lone bright spot was the fried chicken from Soi 29, Harold Dieterle's Kinshop stand. Better than Pies N Thighs imho. 2 stars for BeerParc but added another star for the free beer and the great chicken." [Yelp]

The Twitterific News: @NYCDiners loved the sausage but agreed with Midtown Lunch: "#BeerParc is still a bit unorganized. Gonna wait a few weeks and give it another try." Meanwhile @BerksBars recommends it to thirsty workers. [Twitter]

—Devin Brinski
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