WWW.QNS.COM RIDGEWOOD TIMES SEPTEMBER 12, 2019 27
OUR NEIGHBORHOOD: THE WAY IT WAS
that you’ve probably never heard of
Nic. Pfl eghardt’s Hotel in Glendale (above) and Mangold’s Cafe on Myrtle
Avenue in Ridgewood (above, right) also took pride in serving their
customers locally-brewed Welz & Zerweck Beer.
Welz & Zerweck. They brewed Pilsener
light and Gambrinus dark beers.
In 1912, William H. Cook sold cases
of 24 12-ounce bottles of Welz & Zerweck
beer at his saloon and liquor
store, located at Gates and Onderdonk
Avenues in Ridgewood, for $1
(for the Pilsener light) and $1.25 (for
the Gambrinus dark).
The Welz & Zerweck Brewery employed,
at its peak, 200 men, but the
burgeoning beermakers were stymied
by the enactment of National
Prohibition in 1920.
The company was forced to shut
down part of the brewery, but continued
to brew near beer — which
contained less than ½ of 1 percent of
alcohol by volume. They also started
manufacturing soda.
Welz & Zerweck Brewery eventually
sold their half-interest in Louis
Buser’s picnic park to Samuel Kaplan
and Louis Benzer, a glassmaker who
subsequently moved his Glass and
Mirror Works to the premises. Up
until recently, the site served as the
location of the Glendale Walsh-
LaBella & Son Funeral Home.
On Sept. 30, 1925, Welz &
Zerweck sold the building
and the land that the brewery
was located on for $100 and
other valuable considerations,
estimated to be $860,000.
Most of the old brewery was
demolished and replaced by
the RKO Madison Theatre and
various stores.
Reprinted from the June 30,
1985 Ridgewood Times.
* * *
If you have any remembrances
or old photographs of “Our
Neighborhood: The Way It Was”
that you would like to share with
our readers, please write to the
Old Timer, c/o Ridgewood Times,
38-15 Bell Blvd., Bayside, NY
11361, or send an email to editorial@
ridgewoodtimes.com. Any
print photographs mailed to us
will be carefully returned to you
upon request.
Glass bottles from Welz & Zerweck Beer, produced at the company’s original
brewery in Brooklyn. Courtesy baybottles.com
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