|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Ludwigs is getting a Bavarian makeover.
The German beer garden is now under new ownership, and while much of Ludwigs will remain the same, new owner Gisela Qasim plans to infuse the downtown Mountain View mainstay with a bit of her heritage.
“I grew up in beer gardens in Munich, so I know how the food tastes and is served,” Qasim said. “We have a great selection here, (but) I feel like we can adjust it a little bit to resemble more the Bavarian beer garden.”
Expect slight recipe and menu changes, including the introduction of schweinebraten, a pork roast served on Sunday, and during the winter time, her mom’s recipe of glühwein, or mulled wine. Some recipe adjustments have already been made, including the flavor of Ludwigs’ sauerkraut, which has been changed from a sweeter Prussian version into a savory Bavarian version.
The beer menu will remain relatively unchanged, and Qasim hopes to eventually import beers from small Northern Bavarian breweries. In terms of ambiance, Qasim is hoping to make Ludwigs feel less like a sports bar and more like a family-friendly beer garden. She hopes to do some light renovations, swap out some furniture and make Ludwigs feel a bit more “gemütlich,” the German word for comfy and cozy, she said.
Another notable change is Ludwigs now allows guests dining in the backyard beer garden area to bring and eat their own food.
“The real Bavarian beer garden is marked that you buy your drinks with the host, but you can bring your own food, as long as you clean up after yourself,” she said. “Usually you bring your food from home, like bread and bread and sliced meat, Brotzeit. Brotzeit means it’s time for bread.”
Qasim was born and raised in Munich, Germany, before moving to Erlangen, Germany, at 14 years old. She was a technical project manager up until her husband’s work relocated them to the Bay Area in 2014, at which point she decided to put her career on hold to raise her two young children. Disappointed by the lack of part-time work available in the area, she founded the Creative Collective of Silicon Valley in February, a group of “family managers” looking to take on part-time work.
In April, the Creative Collective began its first project, World Kitchen at Ava’s Market, where Creative Collective members sold international lunch plates out of the former deli section of Ava’s Downtown Market. But it wasn’t economically viable, and just a few months later, World Kitchen closed and La Colectiva took over.
Around this time, former Ludwigs owners Ben Bate and Nicole Jacobi were looking to sell their Mountain View beer garden (they had sold their San Jose location a few years back). Jacobi wanted to focus on her other business, Nico’s Plant-Based Kitchen, and Ludwigs former general manager, Saul Palomera, was preparing to open a bar in San Jose. So Jacobi reached out to Qasim, whom she knew through the German community, to see if she would be interested in taking over Ludwigs.
“I was like, if I start that, if I commit to that, there will be very few of my other plans that I had with the Creative Collective possible for the initial time here,” she said, “but on the other hand, that was such an opportunity that I would have been really stupid not to jump on it.”
And while the Creative Collective has been put on pause, the former general manager of World Kitchen, Janina Dunstone, is now the part-time general manager at Ludwigs. Dunstone grew up in Weissach, Germany, (the headquarters of Porsche) and went to school in Erlangen. Qasim hopes to integrate World Kitchen and the Creative Collective into Ludwigs next year.
“I love to host everyone, all the different cultures in the Bay Area, to show how inviting and inclusive the German community and culture can be, because that’s what my dad experienced when he came,” she said. “He was from Pakistan, and he came with a scholarship to Munich in 1961. And my father said the ‘60s in Munich were so open, so welcoming, so warm. And this is what I feel the heart of German culture should be.”
Qasim will host a Halloween opening party at Ludwig’s on Oct. 31, with more details to come.
Ludwigs Biergarten, 383 Castro St., Mountain View; 650-282-5342, Instagram: @ludwigsmv. Open Tuesday to Friday 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m., Saturday noon to 10 p.m. and Sunday 11:30 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Dig into food news. Follow the Peninsula Foodist on Instagram and subscribe to the newsletter to get insights on the latest openings and closings, learn what the Foodist is excited about eating, read exclusive interviews and keep up on the trends affecting local restaurants.
Amid immigration crackdown, Mountain View discovers unauthorized access to license plate dataJanuary 30, 2026 2:14 pm
Mountain View launches pop-up program to address commercial vacancies downtownJanuary 29, 2026 12:29 pm