For summer fun, Flemington runs a beer garden on Main Street

FLEMINGTON — You get to sit at picnic tables under the lights, play cornhole, and drink beer. What could be better?

The Flemington Community Partnership is hoping that some new wrinkles at its summer weekend beer garden, open Friday and Saturday nights from 6 to 10 p.m. through Aug. 31, will be improvements to an already successful concept.

Executive Director Robin Lapidus said live music at the Flemington Filling Station will continue on Friday nights, but as of June 29, Saturdays will be themed evenings: things like Pride Night, Bastille Day, and National Honeybee and Watermelon Days.

Lapidus said organizers also plan to set up a night market, with art and craft vendors, and both cornhole and pong tournaments (but not, she said with a chuckle, beer pong). Children obviously can't partake in the adult beverage consumption, but are welcome to come with their families and take part in games.

It is all part of a fun, old-fashioned idea that began in 2016 on the site of a former repair garage on Main Street. The borough owns the property, and the FCP's previous executive director made the decision to repurpose the garage from its broken-down state. Volunteers from the local Lowe's helped make over the site.

So now a truck comes in to dispense the beer, a menu station provides local dining options — many of the restaurants deliver right to the beer garden — and cornhole and board games accompany the food and drink.

"It's kind of like being invited to the best backyard party, with people of all ages having fun, except that it's on Flemington's Main Street," Lapidus said.

She said borough residents have been responsive, but so have people in neighboring Raritan Township and other nearby towns like Lambertville.

"There really isn't anything like this anywhere else, and it has that same kind of thrill of going to an outdoor movie or a drive-in," she said.

Lapidus said because the Filling Station is borough-owned, it may be again repurposed in the future. But if that should happen, she said the beer garden will continue at another location in Flemington.

If you have an idea for a future installment of "Discovering New Jersey," contact Patrick Lavery, Senior Producer of Morning News and Special Programming, on Twitter @plavery1015 or email patrick.lavery@townsquaremedia.com.

More from New Jersey 101.5: