Beer Meets the Bowery

One of Germany’s most popular beers (and that is saying a lot), Paulaner, opened a haven for beer lovers on The Bowery just south of Houston Street. With room for 200, the space was once the home of the iconic saloon Sammy’s Follies, and was a restaurant supply store in its most recent incarnation.

The Paulaner Brauhaus Microbrewery is quite serious about its name. Upon entering the restaurant it is overwhelmingly apparent that you have come into a brewery, as the décor includes giant brew kettles and mash tuns. There are four beers served which are brewed on the premises, and on tap. If you wonder how the equipment got into the building as its all way too big for the doors or windows, the answer is through a hole cut in the roof.

The Brauhaus consists of two rooms; a large bar area and a dining room. Both rooms can hold about 120 beer drinkers (and diners) comfortably. There is an additional space downstairs for private parties with an attached outdoor area that the restaurant does not yet have permission to use. (The restaurant is required to adhere to strict noise level limitations from the community board which also forbade the Brauhaus from installing more than one television to watch German soccer games.)

The menu offers German standards like sausages and wiener-schnitzel, hamburgers and the famous Berliner- jelly donut, for dessert. And don’t forget the real reason you are there- for the beer!