PROSPECT HEIGHTS — A new showcase for locally brewed beer and a 5,000-record vinyl collection is coming soon to Vanderbilt Avenue to create a “boom-bap-centric craft beer bar,” its owner said.
Chris Maestro, a former educator and brewery manager, plans to open his “dual passion project” BierWax at 556 Vanderbilt Ave. near Dean Street, inside the old Bopsot space, by the end of the year combining his love of local beer and music, he told DNAinfo New York.
BierWax will offer customers two things: beer brewed in the city, Long Island and upstate New York, as well as great music curated from Maestro’s personal collection of records, including “all the different elements that gave birth to hip-hop — disco, funk, soul, rock, jazz,” he said.
Above, BierWax owner Chris Maestro inside his new Vanderbilt Avenue bar.
The idea is based on the concept of a “jazu kissa,” or a jazz cafe popular in the 1960s.
“It would just be a massive collection and they would play a lot of jazz records. We’ll have jazz, but we’ll also have funk, soul … I’m a big hip-hop head,” Maestro said.
The bar will offer small plates such as pressed sandwiches, he said, but the focus will be the drinks, with a rotating list of local beer, cider and wine.
Maestro is fundraising $30,000 online to get the bar off the ground and has more than two-thirds of that goal covered so far. He received approval on Thursday from Brooklyn Community Board 8 for BierWax’s liquor license and hopes to open in late November or early December.
