This Father-Son Duo Transformed a Bushwick Garage into a Beer Lover’s Go-To
Photos courtesy of Lantern Hall
If you’re familiar with the craft brew scene, you’ve probably heard of Lantern Hall, Bushwick’s largest beer hall specializing in the kind of brews you won’t find at your local corner store. Originally an auto body shop, Lantern is now a chill beer lover’s haven that still exudes some of its previous industrial vibes. In addition to a draught beer menu which changes weekly with a combination of local and rare brews, Lantern Hall also boasts sales partnerships with Space Craft Coffee and Awesometown Market.
Further setting itself apart from your average bar, Lantern Hall offers comedy on Tuesdays and free live music on the weekends. In fact, music or no music, this beer hall maintains a no-cover-at-the-door policy. Moreover, Lantern Halls cooks up what has been voted as the neighborhood’s best burger.
Despite the budding popularity of this Brooklyn beer hall, at one point it was just a garage in the once not-so-cool Bushwick area. So what happened? After leaving his career in finance behind, Jeff Wong designed and physically built Lantern Hall hangout with his father, Luis Wong, who has been involved in the contracting of some of New York’s favorite restaurants including Momofuku and Ippudo. Together they took the space from a garage into a gaming bar and industrial venue with graffiti-covered walls, natural wood touches and vintage electronics on each table.
Paste chatted with the father-son duo about this progression and what it’s like to work with family.
Paste: What kinds of craft beer do you offer? For those that don’t know much about beer, what’s experimental about it?
Jeff Wong We offer 14 rotating lines from mostly local breweries. The beers change weekly, so each visit is a completely unique experience.
Craft and experimental beers are specific brews that are usually from smaller breweries that don’t have a presence and distribution like, say Budweiser, for example. Some of our beers are one off brews and allocations from breweries that we’ve worked with and have known for a long time. One example is our Soft Serve Mosaic IPA from Gun Hill Brewing that’s an IPA brewed with oats, milk, and mosaic hops.
Photo courtesy of Lantern Hall