A new drinking destination has opened up shop in Mount Adams, taking over the space formerly inhabited by Yesterdays Old Time Saloon.
World Glass Bar is owned by Steven Hromadka, who grew up in Vienna, Austria. While there, he had the opportunity to experience a wide range of cultures.
"My dad worked with refugees from the Eastern Bloc countries behind the Iron Curtain that had fled into Western Europe at that time, and Vienna was sort of the spot that everyone fled to as the first sort of major city on the west side of the Iron Curtain," says Hromadka in a phone interview.
His time spent in this culturally diverse city and his trips around the world since are the inspiration behind his new establishment.
"It's a lot of those kinds of influences — where I've sort of experienced different types of beers, wines and cocktails in other parts of the world — and I thought, 'Wouldn't it be nice to have all that under one roof, where you can come and sort of travel the world through what you're drinking?' "
Photographs of the many different places Hromadka has visited line the walls of World Glass Bar. A large, illuminated world map acts as the centerpiece and he plans to add pins in the countries where his bar's beverages originated.
World Glass Bar currently offers around 30 different wines sourced from countries like France and Italy as well as more exotic locales like South Africa, New Zealand and Japan. The bar has 18 taps, 16 of which are for beer and two for wine. Of the 16 beer taps, they offer one national brew, Samuel Adams, and one local, Rhinegeist. The remainder of the taps feature international brews from places ranging from Belgium to Mexico. The bar also offers a selection of canned and bottled beers as well as premium global spirits and a petite menu of cocktails.
In addition to drinks, the bar serves a menu of internationally inspired bites, by a notable Cincinnati chef — whom Hromadka said cannot be named at this time — including a range of pizzas with toppings inspired by Cuba, Turkey and France. There are also small and shareable bites like Italian sausage-stuffed dates covered in tomato agrodolce sauce and pork belly, or, Hromadka's favorite, the Swabian pretzels from Covington's Tuba Baking Company.
"(Owner Drew Rath) makes a Swabian-style pretzel, which is from the Swabian part of Germany, and that's actually where my mom is from. So it was quite ironic when he was explaining to me where he got the inspiration for the pretzels, because I grew up having that style pretzel when we would go to visit our relatives in Germany," says Hromadka.
Mount Adams attracts a lot of owners and renters who are well-traveled, according to Hromadka, and having this space in the neighborhood is great way for folks to experience a taste of the world under one Midwestern roof.
World Glass Bar is located at 930 Hatch St. in Mount Adams. Learn more at facebook.com/worldglassbar.
