PHOTO OF THE DAY: BEER GARDEN GOES TO HOFER

Legendary bar in Menno will remain as such after Freeman businessman and owner of Hootz buys it on auction Saturday

When Dave and Liz Huber purchased the Beer Garden in Menno in the fall of 2021, they saved a longstanding and popular establishment from oblivion. Jay Hofer may have just done the same thing.

The Freeman businessman and owner of Hootz bar was the winning bidder at an auction Saturday afternoon, April 13 that saw the quaint and cozy gathering spot just off Menno’s Fifth Street. /9While it will take a bit for Hofer and the Beer Garden to settle into a rhythm in terms of hours of operation — some logistics will need to be worked out — he says no changes are planned.

The same holds true for Hootz, which Hofer operates on Freeman’s Third Street through a lease agreement with the city, which owns the building in which the bar is located.

Both Hofer and the Hubers are happy with how Saturday’s auction turned out.

“Jay and I have been friends for quite a while and we gave him an opportunity,” said Dave, who said he needed to get out of the business for health reasons. “We had some other bidders who were looking to use the building for storage or development of some sort; they weren’t going to have it as a bar anymore, so I’m glad Jay got it.”

“There’s a lot of history here — 75 years,” said Hofer. “I’m happy to keep it as a bar and keep that history alive.”

The Beer Garden opened as Harold’s Beer Garden in 1951 and was a thriving gathering place for decades, but after several changes in ownership in more recent years, the building sat empty. That’s how it was when the Hubers purchased the property for Dave to use as a shop for his woodworking, but it quickly became apparent that re-opening the building as a bar was the right thing to do.

The Hubers spent the last months of 2021 and the first months of 2022 making a host of improvements and felt considerable support from the community of Menno, which is what prompted them to reopen as a bar in the first place.

Its sale is bittersweet, says Dave, but mostly he has fond feelings for the community of Menno and all that supported his endeavor.

“I can’t thank the community enough,” he said.