Huge news for everyone who loved Boston’s best German beer hall and restaurant: The Theater District building that housed the legendary beer-and-bratwurst spot Jacob Wirth is reportedly being remodeled with an eye on reopening early next year.
According to the Boston Business Journal, the new owners of the bar are well into renovating the beloved Stuart Street space, but as the building is a city landmark, any minor change has to be run by the Boston Landmarks Commission.
Jacob Wirth was founded in 1868, and closed after a fire in 2018, with plans to reopen. Of course, we know that the pandemic happened, and that slowed everything down. For a time there were rumors the beloved spot might not reopen and the space would become a bank or a cannabis shop.
The bar’s founder, Jacob Wirth, emigrated from the wine-growing area of Kreuznach near Bingen, Germany, in the 1830s, according to the Boston Globe. He first opened on Eliot street in 1868, and ten years later bought the building on Stuart street and moved Wirth’s there. He became one of the city’s best known German residents and one of the country’s largest wine importers (mostly from family vineyards in Germany), and “the first man to engage extensively in bottling beer for family use,” the Globe wrote.
Boston Business Journal spoke with new owners City Realty’s vice president of project management Jacob Simmons last week. He said they’re excited by how many locals in the area stop in and ask if the bar will be returning soon.
“Part of what I go off of, in terms of what we need to keep, is just how many people on the street stop me and ask if X or Y is going to be back,” Simmons said.
This is the same group that have bought up classic Boston spots over the past few years, cleaned them up and reopened them, including The Tam and the Fours (now known as Scores), so have faith they’ll stick to what made the original Wirth’s so special.
There will be a few changes, most of them welcome, like additional women’s restrooms and a more accessible front entrance. The menu may also see some additions, but will still have a heavy German influence. “There are certainly some things that could be a little more updated, because it was all massive sausages. It’s not exactly like, ‘I’m about to go to the theater for three hours,'” Kensington joked to the Boston Business Journal.
Better restrooms, a bigger menu and giant steins of beer? Próst! We can’t wait.