Bierhaus Brings a Bavarian Style Beer House to Midtown

If you like to eat, chances are you like to drink (read: a lot of you are freakin’ lushes), so every week our Happy Hour Correspondent “Mamacita” will post about a different bar in Midtown that fits the Midtown Lunch mentality: unhealthy food, not lame (unless it’s lame in a cool way), and most importantly… cheap.

When I heard Bierhaus was opening this past weekend (on 3rd Ave. btw. 44+45th), I was stoked to slip on my Gretel dress, tie some blue ribbons in my pigtails and have some lederhosen clad Kraut slap some wurst on my plate. Biergartens, once all but extinct in the city, have been enjoying a resurgence as of late. It used to be you had to travel all the way to Astoria to find the real deal. Since we are talking Midtown, Bierhaus doesn’t have seating for 800 people and there is no garden to speak of, but hey, we’ll take what we can get.

The entrance is hard to spot at first, but they’ve placed a couple of employees by the doors to point your way up the stairs to the second floor where a rustic wood sign welcomes you in.

Like most Bavarian-style beer halls, seating is communal and casual. Long golden wood benches encourage mingling with your fellow sud-lovers. If you fancy a smoke there’s a 50-foot balcony to accommodate you, but the 3rd Avenue view of honking taxis and traffic is far from serene.

There’s no beer list, so you depend on your wenchtress to give you the scoop on what’s on draft. All beers are from Munich brewery Hofbröu, but they do rotate in seasonal varieties. You can expect bocks, dunkels to lagers. Glass sizes include a “pfiff” (0.2 liter,) “seidel” (0.3 liter,) “halbe” (1/2 liter,) “mass” (1 Liter,) and finally the impressive “doppelliter” (2 liters) that’s served in an enormous boot that takes two hands to lift up.

Service was notable friendly and attentive and no one was shy about letting customers take some pics.

Yes ladies, there are also male bartenders!

The Hauptgerichte (entrees) fall out of the ML price range. All $13 and up for smaller portions when compared to other beer halls like the Bohemian in Queens.

However all my friends loved their sausage, just wished it was bigger. Sigh, been there.

The German potato salad was seasoned less and only tasted of boiled potatoes, white vinegar and onion.The spätzle like a chewy spoonful of bleached flour, and asking for some mustard is $1 extra.

Inexplicably, there was not a single condiment or even salt and pepper on any table. And trust me, it all needed some salt and pepper.

With a liter of beer in each hand we invaded the dessert menu! We tried three desserts. The chocolate cake ($8.)

The apple strudel($8.)

And finally, the chocolate hazelnut crepe ($8.)

All pleased our sweet tooth, however, wallets sang a different tune. Speaking of music… The newborn Beirhaus has many growing pains to work out. The song selections were discordant with their Bavarian theme and blasting at deafening levels. Though I love to hear some classic Dead Kennedy’s and Pogues, it would be helpful to actually hear the waitress that is yelling the specials into your ear. Also, there were on our visit, a good six tall intimidating bouncers lining the balcony doors and at the top of the entrance stairs. Leading one of my friends to remark, “I wonder why they find it necessary to hire so much muscle… do things get out of hand?” The wicked side of me might actually relish a good ‘ol fashioned, beer induced brawl. It’s about time the suits of Midtown get to join in on some excessive German ravel rousing! So I dare you to wrap your hands around a Doppelliter after work today. Prost!

The Plus + (What someone who likes this place would say)

  • Beer, beer, beer, beer……
  • Sausage, sausage sausage, sausage…. (and schnitzel!)
  • I love a German beer hall!

The Minus – (What someone who dislikes this place would say)

  • I’m a vegetarian
  • I’m not big on beer halls
  • Too expensive
  • Music too loud and I enjoy an intimate private happy hour location

Bierhaus German Bar and Grill, 712 Third Avenue (btw. 44th/45th St.,) 646-580-2437

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