Hayes Valley’s renaissance in full brew at beer garden
One of the great things about San Francisco is that sometimes the changes that have swept over the city produce good things, pleasant little spots that make people appreciate being a San Franciscan.
One of them is the Biergarten, an outdoor beer and food place that you might call the centerpiece of the renaissance of Hayes Valley in the heart of the city.
The Biergarten is part of a project called Proxy, which took over two blocks of Octavia Street and filled them with small businesses in old cargo shipping containers. There is an ice cream store, a bike rental outfit, a coffee place, a juice bar, a clothing store. There is even a giant movie screen where free films are shown on Friday nights.
It is one of those heretoday, gone-maybe-tomorrow places, a bit like Brigadoon, the mythical village that appears out of the mist in the Scottish Highlands every hundred years.
Proxy is a city project, and no myth. It covers two blocks that were once part of the nowdemolished Central Freeway. When the freeway came down, the city was left with vacant lots, empty spaces not far from Civic Center. The city had planned to develop affordable housing on the two blocks, but financing fell through and Proxy replaced it. Proxy was meant to be temporary, but it has lasted five years so far, and it looks as if the businesses will stay on for five more years.
Because the businesses are housed in shipping containers, they can be relocated, like a movable feast. The best thing about them is that they are here, now.
And what is a better time to live in the moment than an autumn afternoon, drinking beer in the sunshine with Aaron Hulme, one of the owners of the Biergarten. It’s a family business: Though there are other partners, Hulme and twin brother Matthew are the faces of the business. Even their mother helps out.
The Biergarten opened five years ago this month, in perfect October weather. Since then, outdoor beer gardens have blossomed in San Francisco. There are seven or eight, depending on how you count them — a big one on Divisadero Street, another near McCovey Cove across from the ballpark, a new one on Cortland Avenue in Bernal Heights, even a kind of beach beer garden on Treasure Island.
“We were the very first,” Hulme said. “We welcome competition. Every neighborhood should have a beer garden.”
The operation is very much in the European tradition, with beer and snacks like sausages, deviled eggs and large pretzels.
“We didn’t try to reinvent anything,” he said. “If Hayes Valley were suddenly in Munich, this is what you would see.”
The Biergarten serves four beers, three of them German. The fourth is Fort Point, from a brewery in the Presidio, brewed in the German tradition. The Biergarten grew out of Suppenküche, a Bavarian restaurant just up the street. Though the concept is foreign, the Hulme brothers are as San Franciscan as you can be. They were born in Children’s Hospital on California Street and grew up in North Beach.
Fabrizio Wiest, who started Suppenküche in 1993, was a family friend. By 2001, the Hulmes were living across the street from the restaurant and gradually became involved in the business.
They always thought a beer garden would go well with the restaurant, and they got their chance with Proxy in 2008.
The brothers have close connections to the neighborhood and have made the Biergarten available for community events. “If you ask them to help, the answer will always be ‘yes,’ said Jim Warshell, who is active in the Hayes Valley Neighborhood Association. “That’s typical of these guys.”
The place was an immediate hit. Part of it is the location — just across the street from Patricia’s Green, a 2block-long minipark that is crowded every sunny day.
Part of it is the layout. When the Biergarten is crowded, customers have to share a bench. It’s not like those dingy dive bars. Nobody sits alone.
“We treat everybody like they are a regular customer,” Hulme said.
The idea is to bring beer and food out into the sunlight; the place is full of kids in strollers, even the occasional dog.
October and May are famous for good weather in San Francisco. In cold or rainy weather, the Biergarten rigs up portable tents. On cold days, customers can have a blanket — surplus blankets from the Czech and Bulgarian armies. You don’t see that every day.
Hulme poured one of his favorite beers. “This is from the Klosterbrauerei Andechs,” he said. “Made by monks in Bavaria.” He drew attention to the slogan label:
“Genuss für liebe und seele,” which means, “Good for the body and soul.”