Sneak peek: Underground bar and restaurant U-Bahn

Drinking in a subway station may not sound like an ideal way to spend happy hour — but that’s because you’re thinking of Market East.

Teddy Sourias is about to open a second German-themed spot at 13th and Chestnut to go with his Bru, and this one takes you underground.

​U-Bahn, named after the subway in Berlin, is a basement-level bar/restaurant/music venue with an artsy European subway vibe. Picture oversized matte tiles on the walls, polished concrete floors, plenty of steel and reclaimed wood, and a bar made of textured black granite.

“It’s a trendy, upscale, really cool look,” says Sourias. “I was originally going to just open up a space for private parties, but then this idea all came together — it took about seven or eight months of design work.”

The soon-to-open spot is being touted as an intimate music venue, but Sourias doesn’t want potential customers limiting it to that. “I prefer not to be considered just a music venue. Then people only come from 10 to 2 for the music,” he explains. “We’re in a prime location and we have more to offer than cool bands. There’s food. Really cool beers. Really cool old school arcade games.”

The food is a different menu than upstairs at Bru: Expect cheeseboards, organic veggies and “chef-ed up sandwiches, not a Wawa hoagie,” washed down with ShawneeCraft birch beer.

Of course, there’s plenty of actual beer too, with an emphasis on local breweries. U-Bahn is also pouring kegged cocktails, both for the fermentation benefits (the flavors soak in longer) and to speed up serving time.

“When it’s five deep at the bar on a busy Friday night and you want an actual cocktail, with seven ingredients and muddle orange, no one is going to go through the process of creating that,” Sourias says. “But if we’re kegging it ahead of time, we can give you a gourmet cocktail on draft. People are going to love that.”

U-Bahn is slated to open this month, at 1320 Chestnut St.