A popular Jersey Shore bar and restaurant, closed since 2023 after heavy flooding, has officially shuttered for good.
The Asbury Festhalle and Biergarten in Asbury Park will not reopen, the biergarten’s general manager Nick Falco confirmed to NJ Advance Media Thursday.
Falco cited a lack of insurance to cover the flooding damages, as well as incoming rent increases, as causes for the permanent closure. The decision was made several months ago.
“The amount of money it’s going to take to reopen, it is going to be substantial, because insurance denied every dollar, and we even appealed it,” general manager Nick Falco said.
The biergarten suffered extensive damage during the flash floods of Sept. 29, 2023, which dumped six inches of rain on the Shore city, leading nearby Wesley Lake to overflow and swamp the biergarten’s basement. Some kegs of their beer were swept across Wesley Lake and found in neighboring Ocean Grove.
The insurance company told the Biergarten’s owners that the basement was not covered.
“They really didn’t give us concrete answers,” Falco said.
Falco said the damage would have cost around $1 million to repair, namely replacing the restaurant’s kitchen equipment, which was completely destroyed. The business also lost nearly $200,000 in inventory — the biergarten was fully stocked up for Oktoberfest (the bar’s busiest event of the year) when the flood hit.
The flood waters were deemed to be category 3, Falco said, meaning the water contained unsanitary agents from sewage and seawater. That meant the building’s interior walls had to be removed.
“Some of the walls were just pushed in, but all of them had to be taken out, because that water soaked into them.” Falco said. “It took about two days just to pump all the water out of the building.”
Missing Oktoberfest in 2023 followed by the holiday season and then St/ Patrick’s Day in 2024 — all key holidays for the biergarten — put the business in a deep hole.
Making matters worse, the business’s 10-year lease was about to expire, leading to a likely rent increase, Falco said.
READ MORE: 25 popular New Jersey restaurants that closed in 2024
Patrons of the Asbury Festhalle & Biergarten in Asbury Park see how long they can hold a mug full of beer in 2015. Many events were held in the space.
MaryAnn Spoto
Open in late 2014, the spacious, indoor-outdoor Biergarten quickly became a cornerstone of the city’s downtown bar and restaurant scene — and one of the banner successes of Asbury Park’s ongoing cultural revitalization.
The rooftop was regularly packed on warm nights — or cold ones, where plastic igloos kept diners warm as the slugged down liter-sized beers and ate giant pretzels. While the place was known for its imported beer selection, it also offered a strong culinary program. Their wiener schnitzel was some of the best around.
The closing is a significant blow to Asbury Park’s thriving night-life scene. The biergarten was ranked No. 2 on NJ.com’s list of best Asbury Park bars in 2018.
“It’s just a decision that you know had to be made because of, we can honestly say, bad luck,” Falco said.
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Jeremy Schneider may be reached at jschneider@njadvancemedia.com and followed on Twitter at @J_Schneider and on Instagram at @JeremyIsHungryAgain.
Bobby Olivier may be reached at bolivier@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @BobbyOlivier and Facebook.
