When my husband and I first moved to Fort Greene from the East Village a few years ago, we quickly developed a wish list of places that we missed from our old neighborhood, that we couldn’t find replacements for in Fort Greene. Among these places were: a butcher, an Ethiopian restaurant (we used to love going to Ghenet on Mulberry), and a beer garden a la Zum Schneider, on Avenue C. I’m happy to say that many of our wishes have already been granted (Provisions, Bati), and now, we’re going to have the beer garden we’d hoped for 7-minutes walk from our apartment!
Der Schwarze Koelner will soon occupy 710 Fulton (as rumored on Brownstoner and originally on the Real Fort Greene in January. Dale, a Mancunian who lived in Cologne, Germany for 15 years and his girlfriend Randi, a native German from Stuttgart, will be opening the beer garden come late June or early July. I had a chance to talk to them about their plans:
Can you describe the beer garden? We’ll have communal tables, sidewalk seating, and a small garden out back, and we’ll offer snacks and full meals. The food will be inexpensive — we plan to price 80% of our meals under $10. We really want to focus on inexpensive food – we live here and it’s hard to go out to eat for 2 for under $40.
Why Fort Greene? Why not? Best neighborhood in Brooklyn. Plus, we live here.
What does the name — Der Schwarze Kölner – mean? It can be read a few ways – it refers to a big cathedral in Cologne, and the literal translation is “The dark Cologner” or “The dark-skinned Cologner”, which kind of describes me.
What beers do you plan to have on tap? A lot! Here is a preview: Weinstephaner, Schneider-Weisse, Hofbräu, Gaffel Kölsch, and Reissdorf Kölsch, etc. We’ll have 2 Cologne beers on draft and 1 in a bottle—right now that’s all that’s available in the U.S. We’re working with a distributor to get more from that area.
All of our beers are going to be served in a glass exclusive to that particular type of beer –for example, it’s important that a wheat beer be served in a glass big enough, so that the yeast that settles at the bottom gets mixed throughout.
And the beer won’t be expensive, either — $4 for a small beer, $6 for medium and up to $12 for a gigantic mass, as the huge jugs of beer are called in Germany.
We’ll offer a list of good, inexpensive wines as well.
What type of food? Typical Rheinland food; in Germany you have a number of states – Bavaria, Hamburg, Nordrhein-Westfalen… We’re going to be focusing on Nordrhein-Westfalen, where Cologne is located. We’ll do lots of sausages, “Halber Hanh” which is a half chicken on a rotisserie for under $10, and currywurst, to name a few dishes. We also plan to celebrate lots of German holidays, like Fasching (German word for carnival), Oktoberfest and Advent.
What’s your mission? Our mission is to provide people with a place to eat inexpensive food, drink excellent inexpensive beer and wine, and share a communal table with their neighbors. They can sit with a stranger and leave with an acquaintance. There will be NO TVs. We want the focus on conversation and community. We’re offering kids’ meals as well. Families are very welcome here.
What will make you a unique addition to the neighborhood? We really want to get involved in the community, by sponsoring events for local associations and street fairs to bring awareness to all that Fort Greene has to offer, and attract visitors to the neighborhood. We really want to advertise Brooklyn to a wider community. And though this is a Fort Greene establishment, we want to emphasize that all are welcome here – from Prospect Heights to Bed Stuy to Manhattan and beyond. We hope to be a positive addition to the neighborhood and to Brooklyn in general.
When do you hope to open? The plan is about 3 months from now, sometime in late June or early July.
Is this biergarten your only business? No; my girlfriend and I import design pieces from Germany – take a look at our site: http://www.ex49.com/products/
Dale, Randi – Good luck to you. We are very eagerly awaiting our first sip! Prost!
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27 Comments
Wonderful! Can’t wait until they open.
Hooray!! Fort Greene rules!
If only Randi would excerpt some Schwabisch influence on the menu! NYC is seriously lacking when it comes to locating a heaping pile of maultaschen or shupfnudeln.
Over all sounds like a fantastic addition to the neighborhood. We need a good beer garden – Habana is great but feels too much like a beach party every night it’s open. Oh, and some good beer!
PROST! Will you have large glass boots by any chance? Bitte!
Snacks and beer closer to home! This is very exciting!
See, I had the exact opposite reaction to this post. When she says “When we moved here, all we wanted was Provisions,” I puke a little in my mouth – but also nod my head, because I finally understand WHO keeps that awful bourgie place in business. And when she says, “We want to advertise and promote Fort Greene and Brooklyn, and drive tourism,” she means it’s going to be the Official Yuppie/Douchie Hangout of 2009. Hey, c’mon, welcome to Fort Greene – it’s like the West Village… but with black people, too! But don’t worry, they’re safe, they won’t bite. Everybody, c’mon down – it’s Organic Disney Land, for rich white Obama supporters! (Cue another gloating profile in the Sunday NY Times. Welcome to the 21st Century, Grey Lady.)
What an absured rant, Christine Marinoni. It makes no sense whatsoever. Don’t like it? Don’t go. Simple as that.
Is there a garden behind the building? I had no idea.
A coffee shop or a combo-cafe also would been a good add. Maybe they can open earlier for coffee?
Now if only that boarded up church next to no 7 could be razed and reused…
woohoo!
Can’t wait for this place to open. Beer gardens in the summer are always a blast.
This place sounds wonderful. It’s great to have another place to sit outside with a cold beer on a hot summer day/ night. I also love that a big jug of beer is called a gigantic mass.
I can’t wait until this neighborhood is exactly like the East Village! I would not have started the post that way. It sounds like like a parody of a yuppie interloper but it’s in earnest.
I don’t know. Maybe people are reading a little too deeply here. I just read this: “beer. garden. outside. selection. reasonable prices.”
Looks pretty good to me.
I’m with Christine; it’s a real shame that people try to improve the area. It should definitely remain underserved; that’s authentic! I always breathe a sigh of relief when I have to leave the neighborhood for cuts of meat other than turkey necks and rancid bacalao. I’m often heard boasting about how our neighborhood restaurants represent 4 different types of cuisine! Christine, you hit the nail on the head- being wealthy and white are criminal offenses and those people should know better than to support a black president. They should stick to their own and remain on the upper east side gleefully rubbing their hands together as they sit atop their piles of ill-gotten gold.
Cheers to Der Schwarze Koelner ! I’m looking forward to it.
By the way, since when is a meal for under 10 bucks a Yuppie plan ?
Christine Marinoni I am amused at your attempt to be political as well as injecting race & trying to stir up the pot.
I can’t say as I’m really happy about this. We live on Hanson Place a few doors down and outdoor bars get really loud. Habana Outpost goes non-stop in the summer and now this bar will be even closer. I hope the owners keep the noise down.
Make sure to get some Altbier from Dusseldorf — then you’ll make me really happy. And if you’re going to serve your beer in ‘appropriate’ glasses, then the Kolsch and Alt had better come in .2 liter sizes, or even .1, which I was pleasantly served for hours on end in downtown Dusseldorf.
christine is dead on. i’ve been here for over 25 years and before i hear the moaning about being able to finally buy pate, there’s a middle place between crack and overpriced, pretentious places aimed a increasingly stank group of chosen hipsters. all of nyc was in bad shape back in the mid-late 80′s, not just fg but i will tell you. i knew my neighbors. you could get credit at the local store- there was a local store ,people looked out for you, the area was truly mixed- and while, yes we could have used a few more resturants who can afford what’s moved in? fg is now a destination spot . too bad. thanks beer garden folks for discovering the area and bringing it to the world. news flash christopher columbus- it’s always been here and we, amazingly,were in pretty good shape .
In a way, it’s refreshing to see the negative, baiting, angry people lashing out at anything and everything (whilst sitting safely behing their computer with a large degree of anonymity). It means that Clinton Hill Blog has finally made it! Just like all the other ‘big name blogs’ now CHB gets frequented by silly, petty, disgruntled message board posters! Yay!
But on the topic at hand – I’ll have to agree with MES: beer. garden. reasonable prices. and all within a short stumble from my place? I can’t wait.
I miss the old FG. When it was a real neighborhood. Having ready access to foie gras is not worth the changes the have happened to the hood. And anyone who says otherwise has not lived here that long. It’s that simple.
Cool.
Whatever happened to the idea that the Kelso Brewery in Clinton Hill would open a beer garden, as well? (I believe this was first reported in an interview on CHB.) Maybe the economy has them thinking twice?
sorry, I must correct, it’s “Halver Hahn” and it stands for a role with cheese on it – I hope this was a misinterpretation by the author and not the business owner!!
As a girl from Cologne I can’t wait to see this place open and truly hope it’s genuine!!
Just to clear up a misunderstanding: a “beer garden” is not an actual garden, nor is it always outdoors.
It’s just a big hall (or sometimes a parking lot) with a bunch of tables and chairs that serves huge steins of beer.
Then dont go. Its that simple. And if people go and like it, they wont be sitting around drinking beers thinking about all the angry people who dont.
Old-timers: It is weird that FT GREENE is attracting ONLY high-quality businesses that are owner-run, responsive to customers, offer local food that is incredibly fresh and delicious, thereby making Ft Greene a truly unique destination and setting a standard for all other cities in the country. Most other gentrified areas in NYC, such as williamsburg, harlem, parts of queens, don’t get pate. They get chainstore junk. The nice thing about Ft Greene is that it already has a bunch of chain store junk nearby, duane reade, supermarkets, banks. It’s an established neighborhood that has its own MALL for chrissakes. These “fancy” joints opened by brave enterpreneurs in really bad economic times should be seen as an ADDITION, not a replacement, to the area. You don’t have to go if you don’t want to. You can still go to PAthmark two blocks away from Provisions. But what it does do, is add diversity. Yeah, it’s nice when everyone is just like you; but this is NYC not MainStreet USA. The Rich and the Poor do not get to have enclaves. The middle class doesn’t get to have a “neighborhood watch”. This area was a destination for yuppies since BAM was formed. Finally, this was an issue WAYYYY before you were ever born. Check the history of fort greene in the 1850s — a hundred and fifty years ago. Same thing, but the poor were IRISH not black.
Wait, was that Cynthia Nixon’s wife complaining about bourgie rich white Obama supporters???
ditto Christine… gentrification at the cost of pushing minority people out of THEIR own neighborhood when bourgeois businesses appeasing the white audience and attracting them from the safety of their Manhattan “upper crust” lifestyle to the newly redefined ‘hipspter’ Fort greene.. which ultimately results in inflated home prices, to which most cannot afford. Where are you going to push them next?
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