Bohemian Hall Double Dog

This Weekend’s Sausage Index: Two, in the form of frankfurters consumed at the Bohemian Hall in Astoria on Friday night. Bohemian Hall, also known as “the beergarden,” is the sort of place you hear lots of people mention when you first come to New York City. It’s the last of its breed, the largest beergarden in the city. I’d imagined a Wonderland of beer, like unlocking the door to the Secret Garden and stepping inside to see a lush enclosure of greenery and fine European suds. Well, it’s more like a huge dirtpatch with hundreds of picnic tables and drunk folk in ultra-casual mode. It’s a lot like the dining area at the county fair, actually.

They do serve food at the beergarden—starchy, porky fare like bread dumplings and schnitzel. We made our way there on Friday night, I with visions of bread dumplings and mushroom gravy in my head. But no, that night they were serving only Americanized Oktoberfest-y fare: kielbasa with kraut and fries, hamburgers and fries, hot dogs and fries. The kielbasa were major schlongers, like eight inches of sausage. I’d just eaten a slice of bad pizza and could not handle such intensity, so I got the hot dog. For four bucks, I got two decent franks on one bun, plus a side of sort of okay fries made from fresh potatoes. The franks were a deep red, mildly spiced with a good flavor. This two-franks-one-bun configuration was new to me, a double dog. I like the double dog.