In the middle of Neuhausen, between a small lottery shop and a fabric shop, there are lemonade crates that have been converted into stools on the floor. In summer, a small sidewalk café is set up on the sidewalk of Hirschbergstrasse. It belongs to the Hood Bar that opened here last year. Sounds like the hipper version of a dusty neighborhood bar, and it’s about that.
In any case, you are not greeted with “Servus”, but with “Hey, neighbour”, there is a lot of American rap music and little chart music, and there are only two types of beer (a light beer, a pilsner, at least), but around two dozen cocktails and long drinks.
The selection is special, so let’s try it. Recommended, and rarely found in Munich bars: the Enzoni (like all cocktails 10.50 euros), a fruity variation of the Negroni with grapes. The “Aperol Power” is a sour version of the aperitif classic with vodka and lemon – and definitely more exciting than the well-known Spritz variant (7.50 euros).
As is common with newer bars, the drink names of one or two of their own creations are somewhere between the unusual (“Paris Between Two Bars,” a sour Scotch cocktail) and awkward to pronounce (“Fuck The Pain Away,” also sour, but with bourbon). But if you create it, you’re only ahead of your neighbors.
Those who prefer to go classic will surely find something somewhere between espresso martini and Jacky Cola. Even guests who do not drink alcohol are offered more than just lemonade – for example the Manzana Forever Cocktail with apple, lemon and ginger beer (all mocktails for 8.20 euros).
You sit on converted lemonade crates.
(Photo: Mark Siaulys Pfeiffer/Mark Siaulys Pfeiffer)
But the cocktails are exceptional – and delicious at that.
(Photo: Mark Siaulys Pfeiffer/Mark Siaulys Pfeiffer)
Of course there are also alternatives.
(Photo: Mark Siaulys Pfeiffer/Mark Siaulys Pfeiffer)
With some bar food in small bowls, there’s nothing wrong with an aperitivo in the Schanigarten, even if the sun can no longer be seen behind the Neuhauser old building facades quite early. The bar opens at 6 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday and closes at 3 a.m. on weekends. And because the gastronomic offer in Neuhausen is so wide, but the bar culture is rather limited, the Hood Bar is of course just as suitable for an extended nightcap after dinner. If it’s too cold outside, blankets are hidden in the stools as the first escalation level, and as a second step you can sit inside in front of the marble-look walls in the dim orange light.
So does that work – a neighborhood bar, but not as a cozy Boazn with the risk of regulars, but as a kind of hip cocktail bar? Sitting on a crate of lemonade in front of the Hood Bar, leaning against the bar window and people-watching, you think: Somehow yes, at least for the fairly young people who mostly hang out here. The neighbors greet each other, chat briefly, ask “will you come by later?”, toast. Everything almost as if you were not in a big city. But only almost. But: Luckily, if you are not a neighbor, you will still be treated like one.
hood barHirschbergstraße 7, 80634 Munich, telephone: 0176/70779722, opening hours: Tuesday to Thursday 6 p.m. to 1 a.m., Friday and Saturday 6 p.m. to 3 a.m.