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If you could somehow transport to North Williamsburg one of those hearty Cheers-like Irish pubs in Boston that attract slumming college kids, you'd have an approximation of this oak-filled tavern and restaurant with arguably the best beer selection in Brooklyn. Dark, spacious, and festooned with, yes, mugs, a light-up American flag, and paraphernalia from seemingly every brewery ever invented, the place just might pass for the headquarters of a labor union. Though not as gloriously blue-collar as the clientele at Turkey's Nest Tavern down the street, the folks lifting big mugs of Weinstephaner Heifeweisen at the bar do seem like the last remnants of Williamsburg's pre-hipster wave; they're novelists and journalists in their late twenties and early thirties, rather than college drop-outs looking to conquer the world with rock-and-roll. (Don't look to the jukebox for anything made after 1992, though Jimi Hendrix, Earth Wind and Fire and one CD of "Music to Drink Beer By" do represent.) Our only worry comes from the anomalous restaurant in the back, serving dishes like which, though tasty, are nevertheless woefully out of sync with the bar's décor and spirit. If you want to join the resistance to Mug's becoming Williamsburg's first Park-Slopish yuppie hang, just stay out front watching sports, order nothing but beer and nachos. — Jada Yuan