When Brooklyn-based German bar Black Forest screened its first World Cup games live in 2014, co-owner Tobias Holler just wanted everyone to have a good time. In the end, Germany won the whole thing, beating Brazil by an astounding 7–1 along the way. “Every time I looked up, there was another goal,” Holler says about that semifinal match. A poster from those heady days still hangs on a wall at the bar, and though Germany hasn’t equaled that accomplishment since, Black Forest’s popularity has kept expanding, adding a second Brooklyn location as well as a cocktail bar next door to the original in Fort Greene.
This year the German national soccer team opens its World Cup campaign on June 14 in Houston and plays its last group stage game (against Ecuador) on June 25 at MetLife Stadium, just across the Hudson River from New York City. As before, Black Forest’s German beer hall will be a lively alternative for those without tickets.
Owners Ayana and Tobias Holler, 2014. Courtesy, Black Forest. Holler in 2026. Photo: Sara Konradi
Some background
Holler opened Black Forest with his wife, Ayana, in 2013 in Brooklyn’s hip Fort Greene neighborhood, taking over a former doctor’s office. They named it after the region in Germany where they both grew up, though the couple actually met in New York. Holler came to the City in 2002 as a grad student, loved it and never left. He’s an architect by trade, so NYC was an obvious choice. He was especially drawn to Brooklyn for “the old brownstones, the diversity and the energy,” he says. Ayana arrived in 2010, a budding filmmaker working on a screenplay. Less than two years later, they met at a party and realized they had grown up less than 10 miles from each other in Baden-Württemberg state, on the western reaches of the Black Forest. They fell in love, got married, became US citizens and started a family.
Seeing a lack of German pubs in Brooklyn and virtually none in the City that represented the Baden–Black Forest region, they decided to open a bar. Holler designed the interior himself; with help from friends and an unusually affable landlord, Black Forest was born. Its second outpost opened in 2017, at 181 Smith Street in Brooklyn’s Boerum Hill, and then in 2023 came Fritz, the cocktail bar next door to the Fort Greene location that has a 1920s Berlin vibe. The work “never stops” says Holler, who lived nearby until recently, but “when everyone is happy and having a good time, it’s incredibly rewarding.”
What it’s like inside
For the interior of the original Black Forest, Holler wanted to blend two separate concepts under one roof: a bar area, with an exposed wooden ceiling and beams (original to the Brooklyn building, though the effect is very old-world European), and a beer hall area, with exposed brick walls and large communal wood tables under two bright skylights—this is where the giant TV screens are—to create a German beer garden feel. There’s also sidewalk seating for around 25 people.
Throughout you’ll see mementos associated with the Black Forest region: antique cuckoo clocks, the production of which took off in the Black Forest in the 18th century; colorful masks from the annual Black Forest Fasnacht, a festival similar to Mardi Gras; and a couple of taxidermy stag’s heads mounted on the wall. Look out for the old Rothaus beer barrel in the center between the two spaces: This was the first Rothaus beer keg ever sold on US soil. No surprise that regional food, especially beer, is a big part of Black Forest’s appeal.
The German Family Feast, a popular menu item for groups
What the food and drink are like
Sitting at one of the tables in Black Forest, munching sausage and sipping pilsner, it’s easy to imagine you’ve slipped into a small tavern in the woods of Baden—you’ll be toasting with ein prosit (cheers) in no time. The bar pours around 15 beers on draft, including Bavaria’s Hofbräu and Weihenstephan (makers of a weissbier, or wheat beer), plus Saxony’s Radeberger, but also Rothaus pilsner, an unpasteurized Black Forest stalwart that was once impossible to get in the United States. After working closely with the brewery in Grafenhausen, the Hollers served America’s first unpasteurized German beer a decade or so ago. It has since become something of a Brooklyn cult tipple. Beers come in half liter, liter and mind-bending two-liter boot sizes.
There are also German wines (including hot mulled wine), themed cocktails like the Black Forest Negroni and Black Forest fruit brandies like Kirschwasser (a dry cherry brandy distilled from fermented Morello cherries). The food menu has hearty German favorites such as soft pretzels and authentic sausages made by an NYC-based German butcher, as well as regional dishes like flammkuchen (Alsatian thin-crust flatbread, served with bacon and sour cream), beer-battered fried mushrooms with garlic dip (traditionally served at Baden wine fairs in the fall) and a fabulous Black Forest cherry cake, from a traditional recipe perfected by Ayana. Unlike sweeter American versions, this cake sandwiches distilled cherries between layers of kirsch-soaked chocolate and cream sponge.
The 2014 World Cup Final, with Germany becoming the World Champion. Courtesy, Black Forest
What it’s like on game day
If you’re looking for a boisterous German beer hall experience, this is it. The place gets packed with fans in white shirts cheering on die deutsche elf (the German eleven, referring to the German national team) as screams of auf geht’s! (let’s go) and der schiri ist blind (schiri means “ref,” ahem) ring out as boots of beer flow from the bar.
Bartender Noa Greenwell is looking forward to her first World Cup at Black Forest. Like most of the staff here, her background isn’t German but reflects Brooklyn’s diversity, with people coming from all over. Greenwell arrived from Maui five years ago as a student. Head chef Pedro Silva hails from Mexico but has been working at Black Forest for more than a decade.
Holler supports his local Baden team, SC Freiburg, which plays in Germany’s Bundesliga (the top soccer division), though the bar no longer regularly shows German club games live—there wasn’t enough demand. It does screen English Premier League games and all the major international soccer tournaments, including the World Cup, when two giant TVs will be in position in addition to the two large screens near the bar. You’ll get a good view wherever you are, but it’s best to reserve tables for the big games and, of course, all the German matches. Black Forest is running a tiered reservation system, with the premium tables providing 360-degree views. Tables for games involving Germany or Team USA are likely to be sold out early, but you can still squeeze in on the day, perhaps at a sidewalk table.
You’ll have fun whatever team you support, bolstered by fine German cuisine, plenty of beer and a dose of gemütlichkeit, or friendliness and good cheer, which like the food comes in hefty servings.
Tobias Holler outside Black Forest
Practicalities
Black Forest is at 733 Fulton Street, reachable by the G train to the Fulton Street station or C train to Lafayette Street. For the 181 Smith Street branch, take the F or G to Bergen Street.