Call it an even trade.
While Czech hockey fans borrow the New York Rangers this weekend, New Yorkers will borrow something themselves from the finest of Czech traditions: the beer garden.
When the puck drops Oct. 4 at O2 Arena on the National Hockey League's season opening game, Rangers fans will be cheering their team on against the Tampa Bay Lightning while sipping pivo at the Bohemian Beer Garden in Astoria, Queens.
"There will be giant screens, former hockey players and tents in case of rain," said Lizanne Fluxmon, event coordinator for Bohemian Hall and Beer Garden.
The beer garden dates from 1919 (with the pesky Prohibition interfering for a bit) and its Web site claims it to be the last remaining beer garden in New York City ? a remnant of the 800 or so that once quenched the thirst of newly arrived immigrants in particular.
"I actually think there are three. We are definitely the biggest and oldest, and of course the best," Fluxmon said.
Czech and Slovak immigrants have mostly moved on from Astoria these days, but the Bohemian Citizens' Benevolent Society, which oversees the hall and beer garden, still runs weekly language classes in Czech and Slovak, children's events and cultural activities.
The beer garden, too, has proven popular despite the flight of the Czech community.
"We were just voted the number one drink in town by a Japanese newspaper," Fluxmon says.
And on the last school day of each year for the New York City Public Schools, there is only one place to go for parched teachers.
"Every year we wait for the call from the union," Fluxmon says. "They are usually pretty well-behaved."
Anyone thinking of jetting off to Queens to catch the broadcast of the game should be warned. According to the voice-mail message at Bohemian Hall and Beer Garden, in addition to pets, helicopters are banned from the beer garden.

By Benjamin Cunningham