Pop-up beer garden heading to Saddle Creek in Germantown

A pop-up beer garden is making its way to Saddle Creek this summer to deliver a popular idea seen in Midtown and Downtown Memphis out east.

Memphis Bar Ties, a professional bartending and staffing company known by its bow ties and suspenderswearing bartenders, is behind the summer-long event. The series is scheduled to run each Friday through Sunday from July to September.

The event will occupy the former Grimaldi’s Pizzeria space and patio, which closed in February. The site will also block 30 Saddle Creek North parking spaces for food trucks, games and additional seating.

“The avaliability of space and location is ideal,” Lowell Hinte, co-founder of Memphis Bar Ties, said adding that the building has been empty for about two months. “It’s centralized in Germantown.”

During a Monday meeting, the Board of Mayor and Alderman, which also serves as the city’s Beer Board, unanimously approved an on-premise beer permit. Other kinds of liquor or alcohol will not be sold. Alderman Forrest Owens said Monday night that the concept is “awesome.”

“I love it,” Owens said minutes before the Beer Board vote. “It looks exciting, and I think it’s something new that we haven’t experienced in Germantown, and hopefully we can drive some folks to that center.”

Doc’s Wine, Spirits and More along with Saddle Creek “brewed up the idea,” according to Hinte. It has been in the works four to six weeks.

“They found us as the most eligible vendor to execute the concept,” Hinte said.

Hinte wants to create an atmosphere similar to places like Loflin Yard and Railgarten, places that are a longer drive for those in Germantown and Collierville.

“These concepts have popped up sporadically in Memphis,” Hinte said.

Hinte recently moved to Germantown from East Memphis and said he wanted to “bring something new” to the community.

“(The pop-up beer garden) is bringing the flavor of Memphis to the parking lot and Germantown,” Hinte said, adding they could take the concept to other spaces.

Hinte hopes the weekends are seen as a “big summer series.” The company wants to “flirt with different kinds of entertainment,” including movies, bands and artists with acoustic sets, and he intends to have a calendar of events put out monthly.

While Heather Nordtvedt, marketing manager at Saddle Creek, said the lease is still waiting on final signatures, she expects a final arrangement by Friday.

Organizers are still scheduling the kickoff for the suburban beer garden. Since the beer permit passed earlier this week, Hinte hopes people are gathering for the events by mid-July.