Taking a cue from Bavarian biergartens and Oktoberfests, Tysons Biergarten asks its patrons to purchase chips before ordering. Valid for food and drinks, the tokens are designed to speed up the process at the bars, allowing bartenders to tend bar rather than hunt down credit cards. They also never expire, which encourages bier lovers to come back again and again. What else strikes guests' fancy?

• The drinks: The beer list features the finest beers imported from Germany and Belgium, as well as more 100 American craft beers. (You can even create a six-pack to go.) The bars also serve bier cocktails, which pair lighter styles like kölsch and hefeweizen with spirits.

• The food: No bier hall would be complete without sausage. Here, there's American-style beef hot dogs as well as the traditional bratwurst, weisswurst, and knockwurst. Complete the meal with warm german potato salad, barrel-cured sauerkraut, pretzels, or wings.

• The atmosphere: The 8,000-square-foot biergarten, with its shaded picnic tables and games, is the main attraction, especially since it's in view of happy-hour-starved commuters at the Greensboro Metro station and Tysons Corner's many office complexes. This dog- and kid-friendly patio hosts live music and game-day broadcasts on three projector screens. When the weather's not so good, revelers head into the multi-level bier hall, also decked out with TVs.