By night, downtown A2 parking lot becomes Bill's Beer Garden

The parking lot behind Ann Arbor's Downtown Home & Garden, which is arguably as scenic as parking lots get, is getting its own scene. Bill's Beer Garden opens there on October 18, next to Mark's Carts outdoor food court. Patrons may bring food from the carts into the garden.

It's "the combination of the location, the existence of [Mark' Carts] and the incredible Michigan craft beer industry all kind of coming together, and I think we're going to produce a very nice operation, a very nice place where people will want to come to and want to be," says owner Bill Zolkowski.

A beer shed modeled after a Parisian news stand now sits in the lot. A pavilion with a permanent roof, radiant heat, and seating has been built on either side of the greenhouse to the rear of the garden store at 210 S. Ashley St.

Bill's Beer Garden will be open from 5-11 p.m. Thursday through Saturday and 4-9 p.m. on Sundays, until December 2. It will re-open on St. Patrick's Day 2013, Zolkowski says. He plans to hire 8-12 staffpersons.

It can seat 160 people at tables on the pavilion and classic open-air beer garden benches.
 
"You're very likely to be sitting next to someone you don't know and end up in a conversation with people, interactions with people that you did not come in with and you didn't anticipate when you walked in the front gate. And that really has been almost a trademark of classic beer gardens, and we want to replicate that..." Zolkowki says. "We'll expand the community, give the community a space with which to come and to hang out. We think it's going to work real well in a city like Ann Arbor."

Source: Bill Zolkowski, owner of Bill's Beer Garden
Writer: Tanya Muzumdar