Craft Beer News
After multiple hurdles, Austin-style beer garden to open in Richardson
There's craft beer coming to Richardson in a beer garden setup with a touch of Austin. Called Old 75 Beer Garden, it's a new concept opening at the Richardson Restaurant Park, at 744 S. Central Expy., just north of Spring Valley Road.
UPDATE 3-27-2023: Old 75 will open the first weekend in April.
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Old 75 — obviously named for the adjacent freeway, but seemingly designed to evoke the Americana band Old 97s? — will embrace the classic Texas-style beer garden model, providing an outdoor space for adults and families to relax, drink beer or cocktail, eat food, listen to live music, watch sports TV, and play games.
There'll be a 15,000-square-foot outdoor area with communal seating, under the shade canopy of 12 live oak trees, which the release describes as "magnificent."
The food will include hot dogs, sausages, and burgers from neighboring Dog Haus, plus a "guest kitchen" and food trucks to provide rotating seasonal food offerings.
Drinks will be served from the a repurposed shipping container that provides a unique indoor/outdoor bar experience, with 50 drinks on draft, full cocktail service, and canned drinks.
Guests can also rent cabanas.
Other amenities include:
- Game Court
- firepit
- live stage
- big screen TV
- 20 additional TVs
Owner/operator is Kirk Hermansen, the developer who created Richardson Restaurant Park. It's been a long journey to reach this point, with Hermansen having surmounted hurdles from neighbors and Richardson's City Council to get here.
He recruited hospitality consulting firm Harrison to help conceptualize the beer garden; Harrison previously designed for the brand owners of Dog Haus, also located at the restaurant park.
In a statement, Hermansen summons Austin's most favorite celebrity and also tosses off a German word, Gemütlichkeit, which YouTube says is pronounced "ger-myOOCH-lish-kite." Come on, say it now, ger-myooch-lish-kite. It means "a state of conveying a feeling of warmth, friendliness and belonging."
"We wanted to introduce an outdoor space to the Richardson area that personifies a bit of the Matthew McConaughey-Texas vibe, where locals can come together for any gathering, whether that be a birthday, graduation, work outing and more," Hermansen says.
"We want to capture the essence of what a Biergarten is all about – a community gathering space where everyone is welcome that offers 'Gemütlichkeit'," he says. Ger-myooch-lish-kite.
