Josh Neureuther and Chaz Hastings became co-owners of Germantown’s Old Town Inn three years ago. During this past August, the restaurant’s 140-year-old home has undergone a $75,000 renovation and will reopen Friday, Sept. 4 at 6 p.m. as Old Town Beer Hall.
The renovation was made after Neureuther and Hastings experienced an exponential amount of business at the property’s beer garden called Von Rothenburg Bier Stube.
“The property has always had a small building in the back that was more or less a beer garden,” says Neureuther. “When we took over, we completely renovated the Bier Stube to be 100% German and extended the beer garden. Once we saw the hundreds of people come through every weekend during the summer, we knew we didn’t want to lose that business over the winter. People were so excited about the theme and having the German beer and German menu, we thought it only made sense to carry it over to Old Town Inn to provide guests somewhere to go during the winter months. Today, Old Town Beer Hall is the only German restaurant that serves German food and German craft beer in Germantown.”
Neureuther is proud to share that Old Town Beer Hall and Von Rothenburg Bier Stube are entirely authentic. “There’s not one thing in these buildings that isn’t 100% German, besides probably the light switches,” he says with a chuckle. “Everything is either imported or made by someone that’s German. Even our carpenter is from Germany! And the tables in the beer garden are actually from the stock that they used for Oktoberfest in Germany.”
The décor was inspired by Munich’s Hofbräuhaus. “We looked at what Hofbräuhaus did in the early 1800s and 1900s and used that kind of as a backdrop for what we wanted to do here. We took artwork from old postcards and stuff like that and painted them onto the walls.”
“The place is 100% Bavarian themed,” Neureuther continues. “Authenticity is our goal. We serve beer from the Hofbräuhaus as well as from the Brauerei Weihenstephan, which is the oldest brewery in the world, founded in 1040.”
The establishment will celebrate its grand reopening in conjunction with its annual Oktoberfest Ceremonial Keg Tapping event, which will feature barrels of beer from Hofbräuhaus and Brauerei Weihenstephan. “We tap them to signify the beginning of the Oktoberfest season and this year we’re going to be doing that inside the newly renovated Beer Hall,” says Neureuther. “We’ll have German music by Peggy Mueller and a free Spanferkel (pig roast) buffet. Between the live music, free beer and free food, it should be quite the festivities.”
Oktoberfest is celebrated every weekend during September at Old Town Beer Hall, featuring half-off liters of beer from 11a.m.-2 p.m. and rotisserie chicken. And with every entrée purchased this month, 50 cents will be donated to the American Red Cross.
Germantown’s Old Town Beer Hall (N116 W15841 Main St.) kicks off the ceremonial keg tapping 6 p.m. Friday, Sept. 6. Festivities run ’till bar close. For more information, visit facebook.com/oldtowninnwi.
