Here’s a slice of Germany in Gurgaon. The 7° Brauhaus, located on the 3rd floor of Gurgaon’s South Point Mall is spread over 12,500 square feet, has been designed on the lines of a Bavarian Biergarten (beer garden). What immediately strike the eye are the large, jovial-looking chestnut trees in the space. “They are 99 per cent real,” says Sanjay Mathur, managing director of Seven Souls Hospitality Pvt Ltd and founder of the brewery. A close inspection reveals that the trunks and branches are real, but the leaves and fruit are not; however they’ve been created (in China) to resemble the real thing as closely as possible. The story behind the trees goes something like this: in the olden days, when barrels of beer had to be stored for months, German brewers would bury theirs deep in the ground so they remained cool during fermentation. To spot where the barrels were buried, they would plant a chestnut tree over the area. Apart from the trees, original oak and maple wooden furniture, hanging copper lamps, granite floors, and 500-litre steel tanks for the micro-brewery, add up to create a German ambience.
The microbrewery setup, imported from Caspary Gmbh Germany, takes centre stage. The brew master tells me, “Mr Mathur has bought the Mercedes-Benz of micro-breweries to India.” The brewing paraphernalia in the main restaurant gives the feeling of being in an actual beer factory. The four tanks ensure that at any given time, four flavours of beer can be created and stored. A private dining area is also sandwiched between these tanks. The German brew master brews the beer using only high-quality malts, hops, yeast, and water. The first three ingredients are imported from Germany. Currently the four kinds of crafted, unfiltered beer (rich in proteins and yeast) served here are Lager, Dark, Master’s Brew, and Wheat. “Most of the places around Delhi and NCR with breweries of their own have cheaper Chinese models. We have taken care to keep everything authentically German. The difference in the quality is evident,” explains Mathur.
Mathur stayed in Germany for three months to learn more about the product that he wanted to introduce here. “When you are opening a themed restaurant, everything should speak the same language. So from the beer to the décor, the food, and even the waiters’ shirts are the same as you would see in Germany. During the Oktoberfest, we held our version of the festival here, and we even got girls to waitress in traditional dirndls,” he says.
The food menu too, largely comprises of German dishes that are prepared in an open kitchen. A haven for meat lovers, try a wide variety of German sausages (again imported from there), from Bratwurst, Weisswurst, to Frankfurter, Original Munich, Nuremberg, Frankfurter, German Snail, Krakauer, and Knaxx sausages. I started my meal with a subtle-tasting soup, called Pottage Polo Florentine, which has chicken chunks in a creamy broth infused with spinach. Next was a filling Grilled German Sausage Platter, served with good ‘ol crispy French fries, refreshing Sauerkraut and savoury pretzel-like bread. Lastly, upon the insistence of Chef Akash Sharma (who has worked in the past with Grand Hyatt, Ramada amongst others), I tried the Chicken Schnitzel, topped with Gruyère cheese and crispy smoked ham slices. For the Schnitzel, the boneless meat is thinned with a hammer, then coated with flour, beaten eggs, and then deep fried. Here it is served with a portion of German pasta, Spaetzle, that look like inflated pieces of cooked rice grains. It all tasted divine. Another delicacy and a bestseller is the Pork Knuckle. I chose to wash my meal down with a tumbler of their in-house wheat beer. This beer, with its strong texture and soft taste, complemented the food perfectly. The beer here is served at 7°C – the correct temperature to serve beer. This is where the name 7° Brauhaus comes from (Brauhaus in German means a beer house). An average meal for two with alcohol will cost around Rs 3,000.
Two months ago, Mathur added an extension to the restaurant, a café called Café 7, right outside 7° Brauhaus. The café serves simple sandwiches and salads, along with freshly brewed coffee. Mathur says, “The main reason for opening the café was that after a nice session of drinking and food, many customers, especially foreigners, want a nice cup of coffee.”
The restaurant, with its two levels, seats around 250 people. On special musical nights, mostly during weekends, the eatery looks more like a club with a lot of the seating removed, and can accommodate up to 400 people. On most days, the restaurant sees a steady crowd of office-goers and expats. “We get around 6,500 customers every month, a nice portion of whom are repeat customers,” Mathur says. Many well-known personalities, like the CEO of Coca-Cola India are regular patrons. That definitely speaks volumes about any place. But like the brew master correctly points out, the five reasons 7° Brauhaus stands out are great beer and food, tasteful music, lively atmosphere, speedy service, and an emphasis on cleanliness.
Text by Treesha Datta