Battle of the Beer Gardens (Happy To Judge)

Kelly Lamrock compares Beer Park to Beerhaus in this battle of the beer gardens.

While Vegas is a city of constant change, there are still certain rules that hold steady. One is that a good idea will be quickly replicated. Second is that the presence of alcohol accelerates that first rule.

Those of us who love Vegas and beer have not one, but two, new beer gardens to quench our thirst and while away the time. Beerhaus is the entry at MGM’s new “Park” between New York-New York and Monte Carlo. And Paris Las Vegas offers its own take on the beer garden with Beer Park, a Budweiser-branded rooftop beer oasis. So, we have a Beer Park that is not at the Park and a Beerhaus that is at the Park. Try to keep up.

There is, of course, no downside to these arrivals. They are pleasant places to try some different beers you may not have readily available at home, and to start your afternoon warm up for whatever your Vegas night holds. Both had plenty of draft taps with plenty of beloved regional beers and a few surprises. Both had excellent service that kept said beers arriving at a proper pace. Both were in Vegas and had beer, which isn’t a guarantee of success but represents one hell of a good start. If you’re trying to figure out which beer oasis you should start with first, it might help to know a few of the differences.

Beer Park is pretty close to what your backyard would look like if it was always summer and you never had to pay off your Home Depot credit card. Up- sized picnic tables surround a wooden bar with over fifty draft taps and televisions embedded in the bar. There’s an open air feel and a decent view of the Bellagio down to the Cosmopolitan to remind you that you are, indeed drinking beer on the Vegas Strip.

The beer menu is pretty extensive. If you’re a beer snob, don’t let the Budweiser name turn you off – there are some serious beers to be had here. I tried some that are hard to find in my neck of the woods. A “Get Up Offa That Brown” Ale from Golden Road was nice – like a good American Brown Ale, it managed to have some of the complex flavours of darker beer while still having a light feel that would hold up for a few pints. The Rogue Dead Guy Ale and a Kona Big Wave were both refreshing on a typically hot day.

There’s a good-sized food menu here, with an emphasis on the backyard cookout feel (and a shoutout to Budweiser when something can be braised or otherwise cooked in beer). To keep the backyard BBQ feel, we shared a Backyard BBQ Dog and fries. The dog was a huge quarter pound dog wrapped in bacon and definitely dominated the bun. The potato salad and baked beans came on top, which surprised me, but it worked fine.

Now, I admit Beer Park had some help in getting a good review – I bet on Canada’s women’s soccer team at +340 to upset Germany, and I watched them do just that. Not even the CET could ruin that day! But we left feeling that we had found a great hangout spot.

If Beer Park is pastoral, Beerhaus is industrial. Located in the new Park, the high ceilings and large metal tables give it the feel of a German Beer Hall designed by hipsters with an IKEA fixation. That’s not a bad thing — it’s airy and bright. The staff was very attentive and friendly and they also had a large beer menu, although with fewer draft taps and more cans.

The tables had lots of board games and trivia cards handy, which helped give it that inviting “hangout” feel. This is the opposite of a darkened tavern, it feels like the kind of place where I would have loved studying in law school when I was still determined to prove that beer and diligence could peacefully co-exist.

The large Jenga and Connect Four games were fun, even if I lost repeatedly. Turns out Sheldon Cooper was right that giant Jenga really can work – the larger, sturdier blocks require even more precision.

I was delighted to find that they had 21st Amendment Brewery’s Hell Or High Watermelon, which is wonderful on a hot day. The watermelon flavour is not sweet, so it actually plays off the bitterness of beer quite well. I always order this where I can. I also gave Bad Beat Brewery a try with “The Ringer”. Unfortunately, this draft was a bit flat and didn’t really present the flavours well.

The menu is big on rotisserie meats and looked pretty good, but that will have to be for next time – and there will be a next time.

Both new beer halls are great places to drink beer, and drinking beer is a great Vegas activity, so this would be hard to screw up. Plus, they have genuinely good craft beer menus, which is nice because it allows you to recast “getting drunk at noon” as a quirky and fun hobby. I found the Beer Park theme a bit more successfully realized, but both are pleasant places to be. In fact, maybe I chose too hastily, and more research is needed. Cheers!

[Photos: Kelly Lamrock | Cover: Michael Movestro]

Kelly Lamrock

Kelly Lamrock didn’t see Vegas until he was 40. Now, he goes several times a year. When home in Atlantic Canada, he’s a lawyer, international consultant, and former Attorney-General. When in Vegas, he is consumed by the search for the best craft beer, the perfect sportsbook, and a post-show cigar. He loves Vegas because, as Jerry Seinfeld says, “wherever you’re from, Vegas is pretty much the opposite of that.”