By Patrick Hedlund
DNAinfo News Editor
EAST VILLAGE — Okotberfest is coming early to Avenue C.
Zum Schneider, the popular German beer garden at the corner of East Seventh Street, will be celebrating its 10th anniversary Sunday.
The bastion of Bavaria in Alphabet City will feature a pig roast, polka performances and plenty of brew-induced revelry to ring in a decade in the neighborhood.
“It’s a home away from home,” said Alexa Poller, 34, a German-bred server at Zum Schneider who has been working there for nearly eight years.
“I think it’s the only place in all of New York where all the staff are German and speak German,” she added. “Even the busboys understand a lot of it.”
Poller said when she first came to the city nine years ago, there were virtually no bars that served imported German beers.
Nowadays, though, biergartens are bubbling up all over town — from Williamsburg and the Lower East Side to the trendy Meatpacking District.
Still, Zum Schneider provides an antidote to all the sleek new beer halls by keeping things as authentic as possible, she added.
“Americans just love that they come here and it’s the real deal,” Poller said, noting the rotating selection of brews and menu of pretzels, schnitzel and wurst.
Zum Schneider has proven just as popular with its staff, as some employees have been working there since it opened.
“What’s really kept us here is we’ve become a family,” Poller said. “Once a Schneider girl, always a Schneider girl.”
So, what’s been the secret to Zum Schneider’s success all these years?
“The beer, of course!” she added.
