diff --git a/src/server/base_restate_server.ts b/src/server/base_restate_server.ts
index 3b68ce4e..e8632d30 100644
--- a/src/server/base_restate_server.ts
+++ b/src/server/base_restate_server.ts
@@ -132,7 +132,7 @@ export abstract class BaseRestateServer {
     });
   }
 
-  protected bindService({ descriptor, service, instance }: ServiceOpts) {
+  bindService({ descriptor, service, instance }: ServiceOpts) {
     const spec = parseService(descriptor, service, instance);
     this.addDescriptor(descriptor);
 
diff --git a/src/server/restate_server.ts b/src/server/restate_server.ts
index 24a12597..2eb281f8 100644
--- a/src/server/restate_server.ts
+++ b/src/server/restate_server.ts
@@ -9,10 +9,9 @@
  * https://github.com/restatedev/sdk-typescript/blob/main/LICENSE
  */
 
-import { on } from "events";
 import stream from "stream";
 import { pipeline, finished } from "stream/promises";
-import http2 from "http2";
+import http2, { Http2ServerRequest, Http2ServerResponse } from "http2";
 import { parse as urlparse, Url } from "url";
 import {
   ProtocolMode,
@@ -27,63 +26,9 @@ import { InvocationBuilder } from "../invocation";
 import { StateMachine } from "../state_machine";
 import { KeyedRouter, UnKeyedRouter } from "../types/router";
 
-/**
- * Creates a Restate entrypoint based on a HTTP2 server. The entrypoint will listen
- * for requests to the services at a specified port.
- *
- * This is the entrypoint to be used in most scenarios (standalone, Docker, Kubernetes, ...);
- * any deployments that forwards requests to a network endpoint. The prominent exception is
- * AWS Lambda, which uses the {@link restate_lambda_handler#lambdaApiGatewayHandler}
- * function to create an entry point.
- *
- * After creating this endpoint, register services on this entrypoint via {@link RestateServer.bindService }
- * and start it via {@link RestateServer.listen }.
- *
- * @example
- * A typical entry point would look like this:
- * ```
- * import * as restate from "@restatedev/restate-sdk";
- *
- * export const handler = restate
- *   .createServer()
- *   .bindService({
- *      service: "MyService",
- *      instance: new myService.MyServiceImpl(),
- *      descriptor: myService.protoMetadata,
- *    })
- *   .listen(8000);
- * ```
- */
-export function createServer(): RestateServer {
-  return new RestateServer();
-}
-
-/**
- * Restate entrypoint implementation for services. This server receives and
- * decodes the requests, streams events between the service and the Restate runtime,
- * and drives the durable execution of the service invocations.
- */
-export class RestateServer extends BaseRestateServer {
-  constructor() {
-    super(ProtocolMode.BIDI_STREAM);
-  }
-
-  public bindKeyedRouter<M>(
-    path: string,
-    router: KeyedRouter<M>
-  ): RestateServer {
-    // Implementation note: This override if here mainly to change the return type to the more
-    // concrete type RestateServer (from BaseRestateServer).
-    super.bindRpcService(path, router, true);
-    return this;
-  }
-
-  public bindRouter<M>(path: string, router: UnKeyedRouter<M>): RestateServer {
-    // Implementation note: This override if here mainly to change the return type to the more
-    // concrete type RestateServer (from BaseRestateServer).
-    super.bindRpcService(path, router, false);
-    return this;
-  }
+export interface RestateServer {
+  // RestateServer is a http2 server handler that you can pass to http2.createServer.
+  (request: Http2ServerRequest, response: Http2ServerResponse): void;
 
   /**
    * Adds a gRPC service to be served from this endpoint.
@@ -121,12 +66,11 @@ export class RestateServer extends BaseRestateServer {
    * @param serviceOpts The options describing the service to be bound. See above for a detailed description.
    * @returns An instance of this RestateServer
    */
-  public bindService(serviceOpts: ServiceOpts): RestateServer {
-    // Implementation note: This override if here mainly to change the return type to the more
-    // concrete type RestateServer (from BaseRestateServer).
-    super.bindService(serviceOpts);
-    return this;
-  }
+  bindService(serviceOpts: ServiceOpts): RestateServer;
+
+  bindKeyedRouter<M>(path: string, router: KeyedRouter<M>): RestateServer;
+
+  bindRouter<M>(path: string, router: UnKeyedRouter<M>): RestateServer;
 
   /**
    * Starts the Restate server and listens at the given port.
@@ -137,23 +81,124 @@ export class RestateServer extends BaseRestateServer {
    *
    * This method's result promise never completes.
    *
+   * This method is a shorthand for:
+   *
+   * @example
+   * ```
+   * const httpServer = http2.createServer(restateServer);
+   * httpServer.listen(port);
+   * ```
+   *
+   * If you need to manually control the server lifecycle, we suggest to manually instantiate the http2 server and use this object as request handler.
+   *
    * @param port The port to listen at. May be undefined (see above).
    */
-  public async listen(port?: number) {
-    // Infer the port if not specified, or default it
+  listen(port?: number): Promise<void>;
+}
+
+/**
+ * Creates a Restate entrypoint based on a HTTP2 server. The entrypoint will listen
+ * for requests to the services at a specified port.
+ *
+ * This is the entrypoint to be used in most scenarios (standalone, Docker, Kubernetes, ...);
+ * any deployments that forwards requests to a network endpoint. The prominent exception is
+ * AWS Lambda, which uses the {@link restate_lambda_handler#lambdaApiGatewayHandler}
+ * function to create an entry point.
+ *
+ * After creating this endpoint, register services on this entrypoint via {@link RestateServer.bindService }
+ * and start it via {@link RestateServer.listen }.
+ *
+ * @example
+ * A typical entry point would look like this:
+ * ```
+ * import * as restate from "@restatedev/restate-sdk";
+ *
+ * export const handler = restate
+ *   .createServer()
+ *   .bindService({
+ *      service: "MyService",
+ *      instance: new myService.MyServiceImpl(),
+ *      descriptor: myService.protoMetadata,
+ *    })
+ *   .listen(8000);
+ * ```
+ */
+export function createServer(): RestateServer {
+  // See https://stackoverflow.com/questions/16508435/implementing-typescript-interface-with-bare-function-signature-plus-other-fields/16508581#16508581
+  // for more details on how we implement the RestateServer interface.
+
+  const restateServerImpl = new RestateServerImpl();
+  // eslint-disable-next-line @typescript-eslint/no-explicit-any
+  const instance: any = (
+    request: Http2ServerRequest,
+    response: Http2ServerResponse
+  ) => {
+    restateServerImpl.acceptConnection(request, response);
+  };
+  instance.bindKeyedRouter = <M>(path: string, router: UnKeyedRouter<M>) => {
+    restateServerImpl.bindKeyedRouter(path, router);
+    return instance;
+  };
+  instance.bindRouter = <M>(path: string, router: UnKeyedRouter<M>) => {
+    restateServerImpl.bindRouter(path, router);
+    return instance;
+  };
+  instance.bindService = (serviceOpts: ServiceOpts) => {
+    restateServerImpl.bindService(serviceOpts);
+    return instance;
+  };
+  instance.listen = (port?: number) => {
     const actualPort = port ?? parseInt(process.env.PORT ?? "9080");
     rlog.info(`Listening on ${actualPort}...`);
 
-    for await (const connection of incomingConnectionAtPort(actualPort)) {
-      this.handleConnection(connection.url, connection.stream).catch((e) => {
-        const error = ensureError(e);
-        rlog.error(
-          "Error while handling connection: " + (error.stack ?? error.message)
-        );
-        connection.stream.end();
-        connection.stream.destroy();
-      });
-    }
+    const server = http2.createServer(instance);
+    server.listen(actualPort);
+    // eslint-disable-next-line @typescript-eslint/no-empty-function
+    return new Promise(() => {});
+  };
+
+  return <RestateServer>instance;
+}
+
+class RestateServerImpl extends BaseRestateServer {
+  constructor() {
+    super(ProtocolMode.BIDI_STREAM);
+  }
+
+  bindKeyedRouter<M>(path: string, router: KeyedRouter<M>) {
+    // Implementation note: This override if here mainly to change the return type to the more
+    // concrete type RestateServer (from BaseRestateServer).
+    super.bindRpcService(path, router, true);
+  }
+
+  bindRouter<M>(path: string, router: UnKeyedRouter<M>) {
+    // Implementation note: This override if here mainly to change the return type to the more
+    // concrete type RestateServer (from BaseRestateServer).
+    super.bindRpcService(path, router, false);
+  }
+
+  bindService(serviceOpts: ServiceOpts) {
+    // Implementation note: This override if here mainly to change the return type to the more
+    // concrete type RestateServer (from BaseRestateServer).
+    super.bindService(serviceOpts);
+  }
+
+  acceptConnection(
+    request: Http2ServerRequest,
+    // eslint-disable-next-line @typescript-eslint/no-unused-vars
+    _response: Http2ServerResponse
+  ) {
+    const stream = request.stream;
+    const url: Url = urlparse(request.url ?? "/");
+
+    this.handleConnection(url, stream).catch((e) => {
+      const error = ensureError(e);
+      rlog.error(
+        "Error while handling connection: " + (error.stack ?? error.message)
+      );
+      stream.end();
+      stream.destroy();
+    });
   }
 
   private async handleConnection(
@@ -190,25 +235,6 @@ export class RestateServer extends BaseRestateServer {
   }
 }
 
-async function* incomingConnectionAtPort(port: number) {
-  const server = http2.createServer();
-
-  server.on("error", (err) =>
-    rlog.error("Error in Restate service endpoint http2 server: " + err)
-  );
-  server.listen(port);
-
-  let connectionId = 1n;
-
-  for await (const [s, h] of on(server, "stream")) {
-    const stream = s as http2.ServerHttp2Stream;
-    const headers = h as http2.IncomingHttpHeaders;
-    const url: Url = urlparse(headers[":path"] ?? "/");
-    connectionId++;
-    yield { connectionId, url, headers, stream };
-  }
-}
-
 async function respondDiscovery(
   response: ServiceDiscoveryResponse,
   http2Stream: http2.ServerHttp2Stream
diff --git a/test/testdriver.ts b/test/testdriver.ts
index 5c66013a..31d76ddd 100644
--- a/test/testdriver.ts
+++ b/test/testdriver.ts
@@ -15,7 +15,6 @@ import {
   START_MESSAGE_TYPE,
   StartMessage,
 } from "../src/types/protocol";
-import * as restate from "../src/public_api";
 import { Connection } from "../src/connection/connection";
 import { printMessageAsJson } from "../src/utils/utils";
 import { Message } from "../src/types/types";
@@ -25,6 +24,7 @@ import { rlog } from "../src/utils/logger";
 import { StateMachine } from "../src/state_machine";
 import { InvocationBuilder } from "../src/invocation";
 import { protoMetadata } from "../src/generated/proto/test";
+import { BaseRestateServer } from "../src/server/base_restate_server";
 
 export class TestDriver<I, O> implements Connection {
   private readonly result: Message[] = [];
@@ -182,7 +182,11 @@ export class TestDriver<I, O> implements Connection {
  * make it simpler for users to understand what methods are relevant for them,
  * and which ones are not.
  */
-class TestRestateServer extends restate.RestateServer {
+class TestRestateServer extends BaseRestateServer {
+  constructor() {
+    super(ProtocolMode.BIDI_STREAM);
+  }
+
   public methodByUrl<I, O>(
     url: string | null | undefined
   ): HostedGrpcServiceMethod<I, O> | undefined {