Written by Amy Stoltenberg
Photographed by Katherine Rountree
“We have over 120 beers, with 20 taps and 100 bottles. We have the rarest types of German and Belgian beers in town,” said Marshall Urstadt, the soft spoken but proud owner of German-Belgian fusion gastropub Bier Haus, located at 513 E. Oglethorpe Ave.
Bier Haus offers a vast variety of drinking vehicles.
Bier Haus is a genuine taste of all good things German, tucked away and hidden from the usual stream of tourists and trend-chasing dinner crowd. The dining room is open and relatively compact, with tables ready to be pushed together when large parties come through. It lacks ornate or pretentious decorations, instead content with various European flags pinned flat against the ceiling, and a rustic looking painting of a monk toasting goblets of beer with a stereotypical looking German man wearing—what else?—lederhosen.
“We offer a true pub feel with no [television], while at most other bars there’s sports on television screens everywhere,” said Urstadt. “The true entertainment is based around conversation.”
The one exception to that rule? The World Cup, which will be played on the big 60-inch television the restaurant reserves for special occasions.
Running the length of the room and serving as the focal point of the establishment is the wide-open, wood finish bar, which serves as a gathering place, as well as a destination for sampling everything from Viking mead to Austrian cider. Bier Haus also offers the rarest foreign beers available in Savannah, a list of which can be found on their website.
Bier Haus is a genuine taste of all good things German, tucked away and hidden from the usual stream of tourists and trend-chasing dinner crowd.
Exactly what you are drinking from is just as important as what you are drinking. From 86-ounce English Yardsticks to Viking horns to steins, Bier Haus offers a vast variety of drinking vehicles because, according to Urstadt, “real German people drink out of steins.”
“Our glassware matches the beer that you are drinking from it. Nobody else in town does this. Almost every glassware has a beer for it,” said Urstadt.
The beer at Bier Haus is an authentic experience for people who are educated and interested in the art of enjoying a cold one.
“Most of our guests are young professionals, a lot are lawyers. We do get some students, but not the typical SCAD hipster crowd. We get more of the older crowd who know what the beer is,” said Ustadt.
Bier Haus has more than 120 beers, with 20 taps and 100 bottles.
Schnitzel, sausage, and spaetzle are among the highlights on the traditional German menu. Bier Haus also offers cheese and charcuterie boards, large mussels imported from Rhode Island and sauerkraut cooked in white wine, juniper berries, and apple cider.
“We have a neighbor that’s German that lives right around the corner, and she says our sauerkraut is the best—even better than what she has in Germany. When that’s what a German person tells you, you gotta take it as the biggest compliment,” said Urstadt.
There are no freezers in in the kitchen at Bier Haus, as all of the food is made in house—except the sausage, which is locally made.
“I liked that I felt a sense of culture within the restaurant,” said Danielle Boykin, a first-year interior design major from Wayland, Massachusetts. “In my interior design class, we talk about how we have to use all of the senses to create a space, and I think all the senses were used, so that was nice. They had a nice touch of German memorabilia and things on the walls that kind of made you feel like you were immersed in the culture, and right when I walked in I could smell the beer brewing.”
