"We're going to do three things really well. Wurst. Bier. Fritten. This is going to be a gastropub - a drinking place that just happens to focus on some kind of food," Seferyn says.
The focus, in this case, are the sausages from chef Alex Pope and his butcher shop in the East Bottoms, the Local Pig. Pope did some consulting on the menu at Velvet Dog, another Seferyn operation, and the duo then began talking about recipe ideas for Haus.
"Alex is one of the top chefs in town and he's just starting to get noticed with his butcher shop. There's not a lot of guys doing things on the level that he's doing it," Seferyn says.
The sausages range from $5.99 to $7.99. Traditionalists might opt for the bratwurst, while more adventurous eaters could dig into the buffalo and beef kielbasa, lamb cumin oregon, pork tequila serrano, and venison and beef juniper. The lone option for vegetarians is a roasted eggplant and feta. All of the sausages will be served on a Farm to Market pretzel bun. Each sausage comes with two toppings (saurkraut, sweet peppers, caramelized onions, jalapenos, or hot peppers), and four kinds of mustard will be available tableside.
The fries are what Seferyn calls "Belgian-style." They're hand-cut, blanched in water and then made to order.
"We're looking for that perfect consistency of crispy on the outside with a little bit of meat on the inside," Seferyn says.
The fries come with a choice of five kinds of dipping sauces: sweet bbq, sriracha aioli, cucumber yogurt sauce, fresh herb ranch, and sundried tomato ketchup. While the fries will be cooked in beef fat, Seferyn notes that vegetarians can ask for them to be cooked in soybean oil. The lone dessert is a deep-fried Belgian waffle sundae.
As with any true gastropub, the beer may prove the real draw. Haus will focus on Belgian and German beers with 20 rotating tap handles (and 20 kinds of glasses to match each beer) and another two dozen beers in bottles (Monk's Cafe, Wittterkerke Witbier, JK Scrumpy, Kasteel Rouge among them). The taps are filled with several beers that won't likely be found anywhere else in town, like Stiegl Radler, an Austrian lemon shandy, and Samichlaus, an Austrian doppelbock. Seferyn intends to take advantage of the unique taps to create the beer-bar equivalent of sake bombs, dropping liquor shots into beer. One they've been experimenting with is Stiegl Radler with tequila and lime juice. Haus will also have a full bar and a small selection of wine."We tried to narrow down the selection, so we can have a conversation with customers to figure out what they like," says Desmond Carr, Seferyn's partner. Carr will manage the gastropub with another manager and partner Shawn Fahey.
The trio has spent the last nine months rehabbing the space at 3044 Gillham, turning it into a mod farmhouse. Seferyn estimates that 80 percent of the materials were found or reused. When you walk in, you'll take a sharp right to order at an old deli counter with a chalkboard menu above it.
The dining room has four separate seating areas. The front of the restaurant has long tables with church pews and upholstered elementary school chairs and communal picnic tables. Those two areas are separated from the bar by a floating wall sculpture made of painted hula hoops. A collection of high boy tables sit next to vinyl bar stools and a bar that is adorned with "critters," like the jackalope overlooking the 20 taps."We made the light fixtures. The bar's foot rail was the original patio tables at Sol Cantina. The front of the bar and the wood up on the walls (interlocking staves that form a border) is the first fence from Velvet Dog. We did buy the hula hoops. You can't steal 90 hula hoops off little girls," Seferyn says.
The dining room and bar seat 100 people, while the attached beer garden surrounded by bamboo has room at wooden tables for another 75.
Haus will be open from 3 p.m. to 1:30 a.m. Monday through Friday and from 11 to 1:30 a.m. Saturday. It will initially be open only for dinner, but Seferyn expects to add lunch and Sunday service in the coming weeks. The phone number is 816-931-8500.
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