Beer Bazaar comes to Jerusalem

Jerusalem must have done something right.  A few weeks after the opening of the Beerateinu beer specialty store on Yanai Street, a branch of the Beer Bazaar from Tel Aviv has opened in the Machane Yehuda market.

The new Beer Bazaar in Jerusalem opens right
onto the covered street in the Machane Yehuda market.
(Photo: Mike Horton)

Located in the covered Etz Chaim Street, just before the corner of Jaffa Road, the Beer Bazaar offers retail sales of over 70 Israeli craft beers in bottles, 9 taps of Israeli craft beers (on a rotating basis), cold bottles of beer, and a compact kosher meat menu.  There are also two taps for cold brewed coffee by Yoni Alpert.  One is regular, the other is nitrogen carbonated, which make it smooth as silk and hides the caffeine punch.  The other night, the Beer Bazaar was selling a "Red Eye Special," which is half stout beer and half nitro cold brewed coffee, guaranteed to keep you on your toes through the night.         

"We have over 70 beers now, but we're always adding more," said Avi Moskowitz, one of the four partners of the Beer Bazaar.  "We are going to reach 100, representing some 20 Israeli craft breweries."

Jerusalem partner Avi Moskowitz sits by the
draft beer menu and the shelves of
Israel craft bottled beer.
(Photo: Mike Horton)

Avi is the only one of the partners who lives in Jerusalem, so he's the one you'll probably see when you visit the Beer Bazaar.  The other partners are Lior Weiss, Gilad Heyman and Eitan Falk.

Avi told me that opening a beer bar in Machane Yehuda was an "old dream come true.  I wanted a place where people of all kinds would sit together, drink beer, eat something and chat. I didn't believe I'd do it, and everyone around me said I was crazy. But for me, the market is the place to try.  There's a lot of movement here, and curious people, and it works." 

I call the Beer Bazaar a "cozy" pub.  In the daytime, there's room for about 10 seats around the bar, where you can have some beer and a light meal.  As night falls, tables are set up in the pedestrian street, and the Beer Bazaar joins the other bars, pubs and restaurants that have made Machane Yehuda a thriving center of Jerusalem night life.  New ones seem to be opening every month.

Beer Bazaar is selling draft beers at 23 shekels for a third of a liter, 29 shekels for a half, and 55 shekels for a whole liter.  Nothing like a liter of beer of beer to keep you warm on a Jerusalem winter's night -- or at least where you don't really care how cold it gets.  Cold bottles of beer are 26 shekels each.  

Avi Moskowitz and the old blogger
sample a "flight" of four different beers.
(Photo: Mike Horton)

For those who want to taste several beers, Beer Bazaar offers "flights" of four 200 ml. (7 ounce) glasses of different beers for 45 shekels.  A nice way to go, if you ask me.

The retail bottles off the shelf are 14 shekels each.  Six-packs are 69 shekels until the end of the year, when they go up to 79.

The menu has around six meat and fish dishes, plus two vegetarian dishes and two desserts.

Avi Moskowitz adds: "I feel like my years of experience in hi-tech and marketing, which I loved, and my experiences and failures, led me to where I am today, that I've found my mission.  My principle is always to keep going no matter what's happening. And the Machane Yehuda market, which always manages to move on after difficult events, is the place that proves it's possible."

The "cozy" Beer Bazaar in Jerusalem.

(Photo: Mike Horton)

It's hard to overestimate what the opening of the Beer Bazaar means to the Jerusalem craft beer scene
-- and to our pub culture in general.  Together with the recently opened Beerateinu, Jerusalemites now have places where craft beer is the main event, where they have a wide choice of beers to enjoy both on- and off-premises.

Two months ago, Jerusalem beer lovers traveled to Tel Aviv to stock up.  Today, they can hop down town.