NoMa Beer Garden Will Likely Open This Month

NoMa residents will be able to sip Bavarian brews near the neighborhood’s Metro station this month, if plans for Wunder Garten stay on track.

The kid-friendly beer garden with food trucks will open this month “barring any unknowns,” said L’Enfant Cafe co-owner Christopher Lynch, who is partnering with Allon Pultuskier and Biva Ranjeet to create the space. Wunder Garten would occupy 8,000 square feet of now-vacant space at 150 M St. NE, just west of the NoMa-Gallaudet University Metro station.

The landscaped lot will include a tent, “grand” portable restrooms with marble, and benches and tables for as many as 300 people, Lynch said. Space also will be available for children to play and for REI to hold classes on bike repair, camping and other outdoor activities. REI is opening a store in nearby Uline Arena.

Wunder Garten will feature 12 beers on tap, as well as cans of beer. The focus will be on German beer, with some brews from other European countries and local breweries.

One or two local food trucks will be on hand as well. But the owners have yet to finalize the food and beer lineup.

“Everyone is clamoring for information, and we’re dying to tell as much as we can,” Lynch said at an ANC 6C Alcoholic Beverage Licensing Committee meeting Monday night. But “not everything is completely signed.”

Wunder Garten would be open from early afternoon to 10 p.m. Monday through Friday and from 12 p.m. to 12 a.m. Saturday and Sunday.

Noise is “concern No. 1, 2 and 3” from locals, said Drew Courtney, chairman of ANC 6C’s liquor license committee. The apartment building Flats 150 is just west of the beer garden lot. Pultuskier said noise shouldn’t be a problem.

“This is not a nightclub,” Pultuskier said. “This is a casual, outdoor environment where people can come have a few drinks.”