BierWax
Chris Maestro has a cold pint waiting for you at BierWax, his vinyl record craft beer bar in Prospect Heights. Considering that Chris is a Level 1 Cicerone — to beer what a sommelier is to wine — you can trust that your pint will be outstanding. And since BierWax combines his passions for craft beer, vinyl records and Golden Age hip-hop, you get to vibe out to a live boom-bap set while you imbibe.
“Maybe selfishly, I wanted to go somewhere, every single day, where I’m surrounded by things that I really love,” says Chris, a former public-school teacher and after-school program director. “If I built something like that, I felt it would resonate with other people too.”
Born in Queens to a Guyanese father and a Dominican mother, Chris, 45, grew up in Flushing with a fervent love for hip-hop. He started DJing in his early 20s and has collected records obsessively ever since, particularly in genres that gave rise to hip-hop: funk, soul and jazz. He was bitten by the craft beer bug during a trip to Hong Kong in 2005, and his search for new brews led him to craft beer festivals and brewery tours.
“I’d be in these spaces like, ‘Wow, I don’t see anyone who looks like me,’” Chris says. “It was very pronounced. So that gave me the seed of wanting to create something that my people could come to and feel at home, but also discover beer that they’ve never had before.”
Fast forward to 2017, and he opened BierWax as a home for expertly curated craft beer mixed with his crate digger-worthy collection of nearly 5,000 vinyl records.
“Maybe selfishly, I wanted to go somewhere, every single day, where I’m surrounded by things that I really love. If I built something like that, I felt it would resonate with other people too.”
When Chris first dreamed up his vinyl record craft beer bar concept, he didn’t know that the idea was part of a larger phenomenon.
“Someone pointed out to me that these things already exist in Japan,” he says, referring to jazu kissa, or jazz cafes, popular in Japan since the 1960s. “I realized, oh, there’s a template that exists. There’s this deep appreciation for Black culture in the music, existing alongside high-quality adult beverages. I was like, ‘This has to happen in New York City.’” Yet while jazu kissa are designed for quiet, hyper-attentive listening to vinyl records, BierWax has a laid-back atmosphere.
The first things you see upon entering are a wall of colorful Wu-Tang portraits painted by artist Antonio Kel and a makeshift DJ booth. The bartender doubles as the selector when there’s no DJ on duty, thanks to a record player sitting atop the dark wood-paneled bar and Chris’ personal collection of nearly 5,000 classic hip-hop, funk, soul and jazz records that take up a full wall of the venue. There’s a hangout area in the back with a couch, wooden bench and books about music and beer, also from Chris’ personal collection, and a quaint backyard (plus seating out front) for alfresco drinking.
“It's an extension of my own home,” Chris says. In keeping with his belief in reusable energy, BierWax is also one of New York City’s only solar-powered bars, deriving much of its energy from solar panels on the roof. Along with the craft beer, a regular rotation of dope DJs is also on tap, from Brooklyn’s dj reborn and DJ Monday Blue to 90s rap icon Large Professor. It’s such a winning formula that Chris is opening a second BierWax location this fall in Ridgewood, Queens.
In addition to being a place for listening to the familiar sounds of classic hip-hop on vinyl, Chris conceived BierWax as a bar where Black people can discover great craft beers — a pursuit less familiar for many of us. So, what is craft beer anyway? The Brewers Association defines a craft beer as being produced by a brewery whose annual beer production does not exceed 6 million barrels annually and isn’t owned by another, larger brand. BierWax not only does craft beer, they’re big on *local* craft beer from brewers in Brooklyn and Chris’ native Queens. But if beer isn’t your thing, no worries: the bar also features wine, spirits, cocktails and hard cider.
BierWax also has records for sale, but, sorry, none of those records are from Chris’ massive library. (Those are for listening only!) However, you can get several projects from local recording artists, along with a run of BierWax merch, including snapback caps, beer mugs and t-shirts. And because “doing it for the culture” is a way of life for Chris, BierWax frequently holds fundraising events for nonprofit organizations and community members in need as part of his commitment to socially responsible business. “It feels amazing to bring things I’m so passionate about to the place where I spend most of my time,” he says. “There’s something very special about this moment in my life.” —By Dick Burroughs
556 Vanderbilt Ave, 347-533-8449, bierwaxnyc.com
