WEST HARLEM — Hitch up your lederhosen and head over to the 12th Avenue viaduct.
A local restaurateur is opening a beer garden that’s big enough to host nearly 300 people.
Bierstrasse is the brainchild of Roy Henley, the owner of The Grange Bar & Eatery in Hamilton Heights. The beer garden will have a 4,000 square-foot outdoor patio with an outdoor bar, and a two-story building with pool tables in an outdoor second-story terrace.
“We felt that there was a need for a beer garden especially in this area,” he said.
“We are filling a void just like the Grange was. When we came upon the Grange initially just to really keep people in the neighborhood. It was out of a need for myself and my wife Rita that we wanted to not travel downtown anymore.”
Henley hopes the place will be open in March.
The spot is directly across the street from Solomon & Kuff on 133rd Street, and comes at a time when Columbia’s Manhattanville expansion is starting to take shape. Henley hopes the new developments and restaurants attract more people to the 12th Avenue viaduct.
“It’s an exciting time to be part of this in Harlem,” he said. “I’ve been in Harlem for 11 years and my wife has been here for 8. So we’ve seen the neighborhood change around us. It’s exciting to be owners in this neighborhood.”
Henley also hopes the Citi Bike expansion brings docking stations to the bike path along the Hudson waterfront.
Bierstrasse will serve ten German-inspired beers including Krombacher, Erdinger, and Spaten. The food will be German staples like bratwursts, schnitzels, and pretzels but with a couple of creative twists, the owner said.
They hope to appeal to the “21 to 81” crowd with more than 21 televisions to watch a game, a large outdoor space, indoor seating that feels like a traditional German tavern, and space for corporate events.
The interior will have an industrial design that mirrors its surroundings. There will be reclaimed wood, steel frames and paneling, and red brick walls and columns.
“We are not trying to reinvent the wheel or anything like that in any way shape or form but we want to create a good product,” he said. “We just want to do it right.”
