First look: Inside York’s spectacular new beer hall and street kitchen

Thirsty? Good. Because on the launch night of York’s new beer hall there will be no fewer than 60 beers on tap.

The beer hall and street kitchen at Brew York on Walmgate will open next Friday (August 24) with a bumper number of ales to savour.

Brew York, which opened in Walmgate in 2016, has expanded into a neighbouring building and has spent the summer converting it into the city’s biggest beer venue.

The new upstairs beer hall will serve 40 beers at a time and will also include the new Born To Lose Burger Kitchen run by street-food chef Mark Hill, known in York for his Street Cleaver business.

Drink, eat and shop

At the public launch, there will be 60 beers available: 40 in the new hall and 20 in the original downstairs bar. Half will be from Brew York, with the rest carefully selected from other breweries.

There will also be live music from the Disco Daze DJ collective, customers will be able to try the new ‘hoptails’ (beer cocktails), and visitors will get a sneak preview of the Brew York shop, which will open at the front of the building in a few weeks.

Mark’s opening menu will have three main burger options: The Bourdain, The Big Cheese and The Reuben, with vegetarian and vegan options also available.

His eclectic range of small dishes will include kimchi mac cheese, pig’s head crubeen donut, chicken skin tostadas, and a sharing platter of Korean-inspired dishes.

The public opening will follow a private event the night before for some of the 661 people who invested in the brewery’s crowdfunding drive, which helped make the expansion possible.

A venue to be proud of

Lee Grabham and Wayne Smith, co-founders of Brew York, are looking forward to welcoming existing and new customers. Lee said:

• We’ve had a fantastic first two years, and now we are building a venue that any city would be proud of.

  Places like Leeds and Manchester have some incredible venues, and this will be up there with those. To have been able to do this so soon, here in the city-centre, is a dream come true.

Down the line, Brew York will also host special events with guest breweries, and its new pilot brewing kit will also be set up in the coming months, to allow more experimental brewing or group events.

The beer hall will also be an evolving street art space, in collaboration with The Art of Protest gallery in Little Stonegate. Giant works will be painted on the hall walls, before eventually being painted over with new pieces.

‘York needs something like this’

Wayne said it will be different from anything else in York:

• Because we have direct relationships with lots of other breweries, we will be able to get hold of exclusive and very rare beers that people will really want to try.

For the food Mark said he’ll use local suppliers and ingredients, and people will be able to watch the grub being prepared. He said:

• Venues like this are working all over the world but there hasn’t been one in York yet.

  But there should be no reason York should be any different to places from LA to Leeds, where you can get a great burger, amazing fresh food and a brilliant local beer.

  We’ve worked hard to make sure this is the right thing for York as well as for us, and feel York really needs something like this.