ST. PETERSBURG — Hofbräuhaus owners may soon say "auf wiedersehen" to their downtown St. Petersburg location. The father-and-son team — Josef and Michael Matuschka — are looking for a buyer for either the St. Pete location or the chain.
"I think the owners have their hands full with properties in Chicago," Travis Horn, a spokesperson for the company, said Tuesday. "They love German culture and the franchise."
According to Horn, the elder Matuschka is currently fielding offers.
"I'm not able to name names, but people (have) been interested in keeping the franchise and building up," Horn said.
Could it be the fierce competition in the craft beer space in St. Petersburg, or the fact that Hofbrauhaus doesn't have much parking?
"They've never mentioned parking issues to me," Horn said. "It's a seller's market in terms of the time frame. He can wait. He's not hemorrhaging funds at this point. Certainly it's not performing at the level of the Chicago franchise, but they never anticipated that it would."
The beer garden moved into the former Tramor Cafeteria building adjacent to the Tampa Bay Times headquarters in 2015.