The butcher shop Schaller & Weber, a vestige of the German American culture that once flourished in the Yorkville section of the Upper East Side, plans to add a little Austrian flavor to its stretch of Second Avenue.
Jeremy Schaller, the third-generation owner of the business, plans to open Jeremy’s, a narrow cocktail bar that will seat 25, on Sept. 21. The bar will be just two doors down from the butcher shop.
Mr. Schaller, 43, found inspiration in the American-style cocktail bars of Vienna, such as Loos American Bar and Roberto American Bar. The general manager of Jeremy’s, Ricardo Echeverri, formerly of Frenchette, has created the cocktail menu with twists on classic cocktails and drinks that incorporate Austrian schnapps. Austrian wines will also be served.
The chef Christopher Engel, of Café Sabarsky in the Neue Galerie museum of German and Austrian art, is consulting on the food menu. There will be typical bar fare like oysters and shrimp cocktail, but also rösti, a Swiss potato dish. The charcuterie will come, of course, from Schaller & Weber.
An opportunity arose when the Two Little Red Hens, a popular neighborhood bakery, closed in early 2020. “I was left without a tenant,” Mr. Schaller said. “And I always had this dream to have my own bar.” (Two Little Red Hens has plans to reopen just a block away.)
As a young man, Jeremy Schaller often accompanied his uncle Ralph Schaller to Elaine’s, the nearby Second Avenue watering hole for the famous and literary that closed in 2011.
“It was such a social experience,” Mr. Schaller said. “You’d meet interesting people. I hope this can get that sort of vibe, too, of an old-style Upper East Side bar.”
Elaine Kaufman, the owner of Elaine’s, is remembered at Jeremy’s in a large mural by the artist Blue Logan. It depicts an assortment of celebrities, including famous Upper East Siders like the singer Bobby Short, the author Tom Wolfe and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.
Also on the walls are artworks by Julian Schnabel, for which he painted over old prints from Munich, and the German artist Neo Rauch; and a print by Paul Klee. The vintage sconces were made by Kalmar, a longstanding Austrian designer of lighting fixtures, and the glassware is from Riedel.
The nearly blocklong village of Schaller & Weber-related businesses — including Schaller’s Stube Sausage Bar, between the butcher and the bar — will continue to grow. In 2020, Schaller & Weber opened a pop-up restaurant that was called Blume in the spring and summer and Hütte in the fall and winter; it stood where the butcher’s smokehouses once were. It closed recently, but it will reopen in a new form next year.
Above Jeremy’s will be Lair, an art gallery that is a New York extension of Compound in Joshua Tree, Calif. It will begin showing art the same night the bar starts serving drinks.
Jeremy’s, 1652 Second Avenue, 646-560-2753, jeremysnyc.com
