Yuengling to open first branded bar & restaurant at Prudential Center

America’s oldest brewery is still having firsts.

Yuengling is opening its first branded bar and restaurant at the Prudential Center in Newark ahead of Wednesday night’s New Jersey Devils game.

The Yuengling 1829 Club marks the first in-sporting-venue branded space for Yeungling. Though the brewery already has sponsorships with the Phillies, Flyers, Philadelphia Wings, Indiana Pacers, and an individual partnership with MLB All-Star Aaron Nola, it has yet to open up a branded space until now.

The 13,000-square-foot restaurant, with a capacity of 350 people, will be located on Prudential Center’s Infiniti Suite Level 1. This multi-year deal makes Yuengling an official partner of the New Jersey Devils.

Sixth-generation Yuengling and the brand’s employee engagement and culture manager Debbie Yuengling told NJBIZ that her company hasn’t been around for 190 years by just doing the same thing all the time.

“You always have to do new things,” she said. “Industry changes, consumers change, the world changes. It keeps things fresh. New Jersey is right next door to our home market. It’s up and coming for sales. We have so many fans from New York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey that flock to the Prudential Center, so we’re really excited to be able to partner with them.”

The bar and restaurant will serve a wide range of New American fare such as charcuterie, salad, pasta, risotto, carving stations and more, as well as a variety of Yuengling products including Yuengling Traditional Lager and Yuengling’s first new core product in 17 years, Golden Pilsner, released in 2018.

To Debbie Yuengling, the Prudential Center means great hockey games, great beer drinking, and the perfect partner to support the brewery’s Lagers for Heroes program, a veteran and active duty military-focused program in its fourth year.

“We show our support for active military and veterans and their family members, and being able to do it along with the New Jersey Devils and the Prudential Center is pretty exciting,” she said.

Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment – whose properties include the Devils, the Prudential Center and the Philadelphia 76ers – Senior Vice President of Corporate Partnerships Adam Cross called the collaboration “a natural fit.”

“We saw a real natural fit there between Yuengling’s core values and their commitment to give back to their fans, customers and the military,” Cross said. “We started looking at ways we could help get them exposure, working on some in-market promotions, a lot of different types of sales efforts in the market, a way to truly integrate the brand into the arena.”

The conversation has been going on for a while, Cross said, and began in Philadelphia at a 76ers game—perhaps a conversation over a cold pint of lager.

The Yuengling 1829 Club is housed in a space already occupied by a restaurant, which has been rebranded and built out over the last couple of months.

In support of its Lagers for Heroes program, in its fourth year, Yuengling will select 12 military veterans to receive four Yuengling 1829 Club ledge seats to future Devils games, along with an upgraded VIP experience, complimentary dining and more.

Veterans and military personnel often reach out to the brand, Yuengling said, to thank them for the support and beer they’ve received during their time in the military.

A ribbon cutting of the Yuengling 1829 Club will occur at 5:15 p.m. Wednesday prior to the Devils home game against the Anaheim Ducks at 7 p.m.