A massive beer hall with a 4,800 square-foot outdoor beer garden opened in the Boston area just in time for the end of the summer. But the new spot is already making plans to adjust to the cold snowy Massachusetts winters.
“We have a lot of improvements and exciting things that are taking place,” Co-founder of the Great American Beer Hall in Medford Mark Zarthar told MassLive
A large component of these improvements is the opening of the hall’s upper mezzanine level, which were not finished in time for the Great American Beer Hall’s opening on Saturday, Aug. 31.
The mezzanine is expected to open at some point in the fall. Once it does, the beer hall will be able to host more people during the winter.
“That should allow us to have our capacity significantly increase on the interior and then bring in a lot of those people from the outside once the weather does get cold, because we plan to put a fire pit out there and some heating mechanisms, but that wouldn’t withstand the Boston winter,” Zarthar said. “We understand the weather won’t allow the beer garden to be open, but the upper mezzanine level will be open at that time, and so that will help increase our indoor capacity.”
The entire space will be refurnished during the fall as well, with Zarthar saying they plan on adding “plenty of decor” and “new lighting to add some color to the space.”
The Great American Beer Hall features a 17,000 square-foot tap room, 4,800 square-foot outdoor beer garden and in-house restaurant called The Lantern, which offers brick oven-style pizza, salads, chicken drumsticks and more.
The Lantern’s menu will expand “pretty significantly” in the coming months, Zarthar said.
Guests can hang out in the tap room while sipping on a wide range of beers, cocktails, seltzers, wines and non-alcoholic beverages. People can also listen to live music, watch TV or play cornhole inside the hall or outside in the garden. The Great American Beer Hall with host events as the fall and winter arrive as well.
“What we plan to do is celebrate a variety of theme nights,” Zarthar explained. “Oktoberfest, St. Patrick’s Day are two good examples of when we will have theme-related occasions.”
“Then obviously football. I guess sports in general, we expect the venue to be a popular attraction for Patriots games and Bruins/Celtics playoffs,” he added. “And then live music obviously is a staple of what we do. So continuing to have live music for our high traffic occasions.”
Zarthar’s family has owned property around Mystic Avenue for generations, and therefore understands the lack of dining and entertainment options in the area.
He and his brother Brian saw the Great American Beer Hall as an opportunity “to leverage our property in the area to give something back to the community.”
That said, Zarthar is most excited about how the Great American Beer Hall will benefit the local area by creating a community hub for people to bond over a beer.
“It’s family friendly, it’s pet friendly, it’s great for sports viewing, sort of like an adult playground that can kind of fit the needs of anyone who’s interested in visiting,” he said.
The Great American Beer Hall is located at 142 Mystic Ave. in Medford. The venue is open from noon to 1 a.m. Thursday through Saturday and from 12-11 p.m. Sunday through Wednesday.
