Our regular readers know that I’m a resident of New Albany and a former restaurant/brewery owner there.
Around this time of year in 2009 (15 years, really?) we were preparing to launch New Albanian Brewing Co.’s Bank Street Brewhouse at 415 Bank Street downtown in a rehabilitated former garage known widely as the “day old bread store.”
The old farts probably still call it that. A full retelling of my BSB experience would require a book, which I’m ever so slowly writing. Perhaps the best way to summarize it is an artistic triumph and financial debacle.
Regrets? I have a few, but then again, too few to mention.
After a complete FOH refit, Monnik Beer Co. followed NABC into the space in January 2021 for an 18-month run. Now Dog Haus Biergarten has opened, this time without the brewing system that once occupied two-thirds of the interior, and after a second compete gutting and renovation. It’s a showplace.
Things just got rolling during the past couple of days, and having not been summoned for the soft opening, I’ve had no chance to snap my own photos. The ones I’ve seen on social media look very good.
Dog Haus (“The Absolute Würst – Gourmet Hot Dog, Burger, and Sausages”) is a concept that dates to 2010 in Pasadena California, one subsequently formatted to franchise nationwide. The proliferation proceeds apace, but this is the first one anywhere near Louisville, so for the moment, it’s unique to our area.
Dog Haus Biergarten nuzzles up to New Albany (in spring of 2024)
I intentionally chose the header’s German-language wording to make the point that in spite of Dog Haus’s frequent visual Teutonic insinuations, it is emphatically not a second coming of Gasthaus.
Yes, there are sausages; no, the list of 24 draft beers does not include even one German heritage beer apart from those like Yuengling and Leinenkugel, which can trace their lineage to the Old World in terms of name, if not style. In fact, there is only one import: Guinness.
This information is being offered for one reason alone, and that’s to forestall potential disappointment on the part of those who might read too much into the Germanic shadings.
I’m sensitive to this for several reasons, among them my lengthy (and persnickety) beer and brewing past; the bruises from the recent failure of the Common Haus start-up with which I was affiliated; and a personal tendency to reject the modern world’s penchant for pictures in favor of words. In short, precision of meaning matters to me.
And, it seems, often to me alone. Dog Haus Biergarten is what it is, and not what it isn’t (and never promised to be). The food appears to be sports bar fare of a quite high order, and the beer list, while revealing no particular organizational intent at present, can be taken any direction ownership wishes, or none at all, as time passes.
The physical plant is gorgeous, and there’ll be a lovely outdoor area. I spent a great deal of time drinking beer at 415 Bank St., and it’s a very pleasant block in downtown New Albany. I regard Dog Haus Biergarten and Agave & Rye (on Main Street a short walk away) as mirror images, and so much the better for downtown New Albany.
I want the franchisees at Dog Haus to enjoy the sort of success and longevity that eluded those of us coming before them, and this includes making a profit; trust me on this point, because positive reviews and all-purpose notoriety don’t suffice to make payroll.
I’ll be looking forward to a sausage at Dog Haus, and in spite of my perpetual purist’s proclivities, there’ll be enough good beers there to entertain me sufficiently. Maybe just one full-time Helles for Papa?
Hours are 10 to 10, daily. Dog Haus can be found at Facebook and Instagram.
