Openings

Bierstube’s Underground Sibling Underbar Debuts This Weekend

Underbar has, like, an Asian nautical thing going on.
Underbar has, like, an Asian nautical thing going on. Photo: Mike Naessens

Last summer brought word that Mike Naessens, who owns Old City’s Eulogy and Beneluxx, was working on turning Old City Asian Bistro into a bar and restaurant that embraced the unlikely synthesis of German and Chinese beer drinking cultures, which of course we later learned was based on Germany’s control over the Chinese port of Tsingtau more than a hundred years ago. Then earlier this year he launched the German side of the mashup with Bierstube. Now Naessens tells Grub that he has the Chinese component, which has been dubbed Underbar, ready for guests this Friday and Saturday. The bar’s name was inspired by its subterranean location and the german word “wunderbar,” which means wonderful.

In addition to seating and serving guests on Friday and Saturday evenings, the space, which has been designed to look like the hull of a ship in the German port of Tsingtau, China, is available for private parties up to 50. Drinks on offer are made with Asian flavors like lychee, passion fruit, mango Nectar and white fungus bird’s nest. In coming weeks, Naessens said that he will begin offering a menu of “Deutsch Dim Sum bar foods.”

Underbar, 206 Market St., (215) 922-2958

Earlier: Reserve and Bierstube Rise Above Old City’s Rampant Riffraff

Bierstube’s Underground Sibling Underbar Debuts This Weekend