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German Heritage

Bulgrin taps into his German heritage
to open La Grange, Ky., pub

Prost Brewpub to officially open doors in January



LA GRANGE, Ky. (January 2021) – Thomas Bulgrin has brought a taste of Germany to La Grange, Ky. His combination of traditional old world dishes with craft beers provides a new option to the downtown area’s eclectic offerings.
“I started brewing beer as a hobby. It’s just something I always wanted to do,” said Bulgrin, 55. Wanting to open a Tap Room, he found he “couldn’t just serve brew, I needed to have food also.”
The result is Prost Brewpub, located at 109 N. Walnut Ave., just a block north of Main Street. He described it as “a restaurant combined with a small microbrewery. I’m not trying to compete with the big guys.”

Photo provided

Tom Bulgrin has been working to convert a former CBD retail store into a Prost Brewpub in La Grange, Ky. He plans to serve a limited food menu and, of course, lots of beers

Bulgrin’s goal is to serve “primarily German food” with a few burgers and fries thrown in for those wanting typical pub food. He’ll serve homemade brats, potatoes pancakes and goulash, just to name a few dishes. All will be made from his mother’s recipes, which are “traditional German food made from recipes handed down in the family.”
“I plan to rotate out specials once we’re up and rolling,” said Bulgrin. He had a soft opening on Thursday, Dec. 17, and is planning a grand opening two weeks into the New Year.
Bulgrin said he plans to have his own beer on tap but will serve commercial as well and until he can get his own made. He also plans to support local merchants and the community by serving coffee from Coffee Roasters, desserts from a local source and craft brews all locally sourced from the Louisville area.
Bulgrin has some previous restaurant experience when his mother, Sondra, owned a restaurant in the 1980s. She owned Barton’s Chat & Nibble in Eminence, Ky., for four years, and Bulgrin helped out when he had time off from his studies at Eastern Kentucky University.
He said Prost Brewpub will be “modeled after the traditional European tavern of the 1400s.” At that time, taverns were run out of people’s homes, and when travelers stopped by, they were served whatever was cooked that day.
Born in Lyndon, Ky., Bulgrin lived in south Florida with his wife, Sarah, for 19 years. They moved back to Kentucky in 2007. After she attended pharmacy school, they moved to Louisville because there was a need for pharmacists at that time, he said.
Bulgrin worked as an Information Tech for Cedar Lake Lodge for 12 years, but once he knew he wanted to open a pub, “there was no way I could do both,” he said.
The idea to open his own business came about late last fall. “In November and December we had the rumblings of COVID, but nobody knew it would blow up the way it did,” he said. “By the time it really hit, I was so far in that I just plowed ahead.” Bulgrin works with a silent partner and is hopeful and excited his pub will be a hit with locals and visitors to
La Grange.
His father, Hermann Bulgrin, is “straight from the old country,” he said. Hermann was 8 years old at the end of World War II and came to the United States in the 1950s. Opening this restaurant is “a hat tip to him.”
Bulgrin has pictures of his father’s homeland hanging on the walls of his pub. His mother, Sondra, was from Wisconsin.
Bulgrin’s niece, Rachel Bulgrin, works for a design company in Orlando and designs sets for newsrooms. She visited Bulgrin in April and together they came up with “all of the design elements for the business,” he said. The interior contains lots of barn wood and beer steins, making visitors feel they are in Germany.
Prost Brewpub is located in the building that was formerly the home of Coffee Roasters, a Mexican grocery and a CBD oil retail business. Bulgrin rents the building and did most of the renovation work himself.
Bulgrin said he wants his restaurant to be a “place where people can relax. I think La Grange needed something different, needed more variety.” Options are limited “unless you want to drive into Louisville.” He said he would rather see people dine in La Grange and support the local economy.
Bulgrin has gotten a lot of help from friends and family. “The support from the merchants and city has been overwhelming,” he said.

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