By Kathy Cook Hunter
Ryan Gengler and Ben Rash created a pub with a friendly atmosphere where people yearning for authentic German beers and favorite team can find their heart’s desire.
The owners of the Bierhaus in Mount Angel, friends since childhood, purchased the former Larry’s Salon, 315 N. Main St., and renovated it inside and out.
On the exterior, there’s new paint, Bavarian-style wood trim and window boxes planted with petunias. Inside, the place had seemed like a cave with its blacked-out windows, Rash said, but now light streams in and there are new tall pub-style tables as well as German biergarten-style tables and benches.
The Bierhaus boasts eight German beers on tap with seven more to be added. Beer aficionados worldwide consider Germany the leader in beer making, Rash said, “and we are importing these world-class, award-winning beers to share with the community.”
They intend to expand people’s experience and taste in beer. “Every week we try to feature a new German beer,” he said, adding the staff is required to be knowledgeable about the foreign beers. They also carry American, Mexican and Russian beers and hard alcohol.
Their emphasis is on German as they gear-up for Oktoberfest in September with flags displayed on the walls and banners hung on the fence outside promoting Spaten Beer. “We’re the only place in Oregon featuring all six Spaten beers,” Rash said.
A Spaten draft tower considered in Germany to be the centerpiece of a drinking establishment, will eventually be mounted on the Bierhaus bar.
Customers of all ages are visiting the pub, mostly young on weekends and older ones during the week. For those 62 years and older, Thursday is Senior Day featuring $1 off food and drink. Crowds can watch three large-screen TVs – soon to be four – or play lottery games in a walled-off room.
They’ll offer Direct TV’s NFL package on Sundays at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m., starting on Sept. 12.
“Our food menu will coordinate with the cities that are playing,” Rash said, citing Philly cheese steaks when Philadelphia plays, barbecued meat platter for Dallas, beer-cheese soup for the Green Bay Packers, fried chicken and waffles for the Atlanta Falcons, sourdough chowder bowls for San Francisco.
Saturdays will feature Oregon State Beaver and Oregon Duck football games.
The Bierhaus daily menu specializes in sausage sandwiches, hamburgers, fish and cold cuts sandwiches. The hands-down favorite is the Berliner sandwich made with shaved corned beef, shredded lettuce and a “secret” sauce devised by Rash, all served on marbled rye bread for $5.99.
Rash and Gengler, 28, welcome everyone to visit the Bierhaus but they admit sports fans reign supreme, since Rash labels himself a sports fanatic who follows teams avidly, whether it’s baseball, basketball, football, golf, soccer or tennis. Both men lettered in basketball (Rash) or basketball and football (Gengler) at Silverton High. “Our target demographic is people who enjoy beer and sports,” Rash said.
Gengler said they started their business because, “We wanted a clean environment to watch sporting events in Mount Angel, a place where people would know the games are on and come to watch.”
