Cedar Springs Brewing plans German-style beer hall on Bridge Street

Cedar Springs Brewing plans German-style beer hall on Bridge Street
Cedar Springs Brewing plans a 2020 opening for Küsterer Brauhaus, a German-style beer hall at 642 Bridge Street NW in Grand Rapids shown in this rendering from Integrated Architecture.

GRAND RAPIDS — Cedar Springs Brewing Co. will join the bustling craft beverage scene on Bridge Street with a new satellite taproom and brewery. 

The Cedar Springs-based brewery said today that it plans to open Küsterer Brauhaus, a German-style beer hall, at 642 Bridge Street NW, site of the long-vacant Jesus Evangelistic Center next door to Steel Cat Bar and across the street from the Harmony Hall brewpub. 

Brewery founder David Ringler expects the location to open in 2020 along what’s “evolving into ‘Brewery Row’” in the historically German neighborhood on the city’s West Side. 

The roughly 3,460-square-foot Bridge Street location, which will feature a three-barrel brewing system, will serve Cedar Springs Brewing’s Küsterer-branded Bavarian-style beers, as well as its own ales and one-off beers. The company does not plan to include a full-scale restaurant, but will offer traditional beer hall fare and deli snack food, according to Ringler. 

“There are many other great restaurants in the neighborhood and it’s our desire to compliment [sic], not compete with them,” he said via a text to MiBiz

Cedar Springs Brewing sold 783 barrels of beer in Michigan in 2018, up more than 19 percent from the previous year, according to Michigan Liquor Control Commission data. 

The company’s plans still need various state and local approvals to move forward. If approved, the company would join the growing craft beverage scene on Bridge Street, which in a roughly two-block stretch includes Harmony Hall, Jolly Pumpkin Artisan Ales and New Holland Brewing Co., as well as a handful of bars and restaurants. Grand Rapids-based Arktos Meadery also is in the process of moving its taproom and production facility to 442 Bridge Street, as MiBiz previously reported

“This area was home to several German and Central European beer halls prior to Prohibition, so we look forward to creating a traditional, Munich-style hall as a positive contribution to this vibrant neighborhood,” Ringler said in a statement. 

Property records show the Bridge Street site has been owned since 2014 by Grand Rapids-based Alcazar LLC, an affiliate of SideCar Studios

Weber Developments LLC is developing the site for the beer hall. Cedar Springs Brewing is working with Integrated Architecture to design the location, and is still interviewing general contractors for the project.