Two SF chefs are creating a one-night-only pop-up hofbräu

Buffalo chili for $13. Burgundy beef stew with rice for $15. Brisket with mashed potatoes and a roll for $19. Patrons slide trays along a carving station, cafeteria-style, to receive their meat, then sit at a red-and-white checkered table or grab a Ukrainian stout or Gaffel Kolsch at the bar. 

This is the scene at Tommy’s Joynt on Van Ness Avenue, a time capsule whose interior looks like the world’s oldest bar and whose exterior looks like a Coney Island funhouse. Tommy’s is the quintessential San Francisco hofbräu, those no-frills, not-quite-German restaurants built around a carvery and cheap beer.  

As no-fuss as no-fuss gets, hofbräus are a dying breed. “There are more closing than opening,” says San Francisco chef Wes Rowe, who last month shuttered WesBurger ’N’ More but still has the Mission Street space. “There’s so few left.”

Now, Rowe and fellow brisket lover Manfred Wrembel (a morning sous chef at Nopa) want to jog the city’s culinary memory. So on Saturday, they’re teaming up for Manfred’s Hofbräuhaus, a one-night pop-up at the former WesBurger space that will offer $30 plates of smoked brisket sauerbraten or a sausage duo — bratwurst and a smoky käsekreiner — that Wrembel is making from scratch. 

It’ll be a special night: In contrast to the pop-ups chefs throw to test the waters on a restaurant concept, this collaboration is a partnership between two established players looking to revive a nostalgic part of the city’s dining culture.

Manfred’s Hofbräuhaus won’t involve sliding trays along a counter. But there will be one-of-a-kind items that reflect Wrembel’s heritage — his parents hail from Germany — and Rowe’s youth in central Texas, which was settled in the 1800s by Germans and Czechs. Think pretzels with beer queso, potato pancakes with sour cream and hatch chile applesauce, and a Nashville hot wienerschnitzel. 

The pop-up runs from 8 p.m. to midnight, to give folks in the hospitality industry the opportunity to swing by for a meat-and-two. Portions will be big, Rowe promises. “Most likely, the wienerschnitzel’s edges will hang over the plate.”

There will be no wine. (“Nobody wants wine with this food,” Wrembel says.) But there will be beer, from local breweries Enterprise and Standard Deviant, the latter of which is also coming through with the appropriate drinking vessels. “They’re going to loan us a bunch of big-ass steins,” Rowe says.