After Catastrophic Fire Wunderbar Reopens in Rhinebeck This Month

After a four-alarm fire destroyed Wunderbar Bistro in Hudson last August, the local mainstay will reopen in Rhinebeck before the end of April in the former Bia location at 22 Garden Street. Owners Lyle Lentz and Jaclyn Albizu credit their staff for getting them through the ongoing fallout from the blaze and encouraging them to reopen in a new space. 

“The fire was catastrophic,” Lentz says. “It was so difficult for us in the beginning, we weren’t sure what to do.” 

In the first two months after the fire, they weren’t even allowed back inside the building. It was unsafe, still under investigation, and structurally compromised. By the time they could get in, the scope of the damage was immense.

The fire had started early in the morning and moved in a way that made it hard to detect. They believe it was likely an electrical issue that spread through the walls and ceilings of the restaurant and apartments above before flames were ever visible. 

“The way the fire went, I could have been there waiting at two in the morning, and I still would not have been able to do anything to prevent or stop or make it less damage,” Lentz says. 

But they weren’t there. They were in the middle of the Atlantic.

Albizu describes waking up on the first morning of a five-day cruise to Bermuda with their two young children to a string of calls. “Lyle literally said, ‘You need to sit up, put your glasses on, I have something to tell you,’” she says. “And I was like, ‘Who’s dead? What’s on fire?’ He was like, ‘The restaurant’s on fire.’” 

The restaurant on Warren Street had been part of Hudson’s fabric for more than two decades, with Lentz running it for nearly 15 years, after it was founded by notorious Hudsonian Imre Vilaghy. Lentz and Albizu’s stewardship only grew Wunderbar’s reputation and menu, while maintaining a reliable Euro-Americana, high-quality, comfort food vibe. Lentz inherited a Velaghy’s germanic bar menu and expanded it while keeping, most notably, the schnitzel. 

“It meant a lot to the community,” he says. “We had lots of guests that ate there two, three, four times a week, every single week.” 

The staff reflects that same continuity. Many had been there for years. Some for more than a decade. When the fire closed the restaurant, Lentz says his first concern wasn’t the building—it was them. He describes feeling “responsible for all of their futures at that point,” trying to figure out what came next when the thing holding everyone together was suddenly gone. 

For a time, the answer seemed like it might still be Hudson. But the cost of repairing the old restaurant and starting over on Warren Street was unaffordable. It became clear quickly that the insurance payout would be insufficient, especially in the current construction market.  

The fire had compromised most of the building. Large sections would have to be demolished. What remained would need to be rebuilt from the ground up. The insurance payout, Albizu says, “wouldn’t get us anywhere near back to where we were before the fire,” and even if it had, the timeline alone—years, not months—made it impractical. 

“So why would we put money into a burned out building,” she says, “when we could start fresh, in a place that already has ceilings and floors?” 

The Rhinebeck restaurant location emerged out of a real estate search that was started before the fire. The couple had been looking at homes in Dutchess County, planning a move that would still allow them to run the Hudson restaurant while making room for growing kiddos. 

Enough sob story! What about the food?

“We want to accommodate everybody on all fronts,” Albizu says, describing a restaurant where substitutions are welcomed and dietary restrictions aren’t treated as a problem. 

That approach comes out of their own experience. Albizu is gluten-free, and their kids have allergies and food intolerances. Eating out, she says, is often difficult. At Wunderbar, it won’t be.

The large-yet-approachable menu carries overfrom Hudson largely intact, offering burgers, wings, their signature schnitzel, salads, steaks, tacos, pasta and more. The burger is a proper, two-handed thing, built with a thick patty, and topped with whatever you could want. Wings are offered in several styles.

The schnitzel remains Wunderbar’s calling card: A breaded pork cutlet, pounded thin, fried until crisp, and served with lemon and potato salad. It’s a dish that looks simple, but that means to make it great you have to do it right. Recognizable, filling, and tied to the restaurant’s original identity, it is required eating.

You can also get a steak, fish and chips, a Philly cheese steak, and even tacos. There is a whole pasta section filled with classics and salads here are more substantial than the category might suggest, built with grilled chicken, avocado, nuts, or cheese that make them feel like complete plates rather than a side.

Lentz says most of it can be modified to fit dietary restrictions. Even dishes that typically wouldn’t be adaptable like the schnitzel and other fried items can be prepared gluten-free, though there is no designated fryer at this time.

Albizu describes Wunderbar as a place where “every walk of life, every income bracket, families with kids” showed up, and where the menu reflected that—different kinds of food, different price points, no single lane. 

The People Make the Place

“Same menu, same staff, same cooks, same bartender,” Lentz says. “They’re the ones that really pushed me to open up another Wunderbar and try this again.” 

While much has stayed the same at Wunderbar, over the decades there have been changes. Lentz says the earlier version of the Hudson restaurant leaned more heavily into nightlife. Now it’s more focused on food, with a strong bar program that supports the room but doesn’t define it. “The restaurant is our life, so it reflects where we are in our lives,” he says. “I like having kids and people with kids feel comfortable here.”

The opening of Wunderbar in Rhinebeck is a milestone in the lives of all those impacted by the fire, including the Hudson community that lost a piece of their story. Lentz and Albizu hope to see familiar faces at the new location, and they say they are excited to begin rebuilding a new community for themselves in Dutchess County.