  Cinderpath Member Username: Cinderpath Post Number: 248 Registered: 05-2006 |
My favorite places to visit in Germany/Austria are the Konditorei (sit down coffeehouse with bakery), as well as restaurants. The closest thing to a Konditorei that I've found is Josef's Bakery in Grosse Pointe Woods Gistok- Try the Amadeus in Ann Arbor, it bills itself as Hungarian, but as you know Hungarian and Austrian are quite similar. Meinl in Chicago is however a true Konditorei http://www.amadeusrestaurant.c om/ I think you could say chicken dishes are indeed popular in German speaking countries, of course as you say pork and beef are more well known. Actually in Austria cordon bleu is a quite popular schnitzel variant. My wife makes an incredible one with black forrest ham, or Speck when we have it, and a good bergkäse :-), and of course with red-currant jam. Mahlzeit! | ||
Kenp Member Username: Kenp Post Number: 866 Registered: 03-2006 |
The Jagelsnitzle at the Berghoff in Chicago, yummy | ||
Gnome Member Username: Gnome Post Number: 313 Registered: 08-2007 |
Ich glaube, dass der Dakota Gasthof von Kurz ausgezeichnet, wahr ist, dass das große Zimmer das Singen hat, aber wollen ist mit dem Singen falsch? Wenn Sie Fantasie wollen, gehen Sie zum Whitney, wenn Sie authentisches Germen Essen wollen, ist meine Stimme für den Dakota Gasthof. | ||
Drjeff Member Username: Drjeff Post Number: 18 Registered: 06-2007 |
I've been to Metzgers dozens of times and it is always delicious. It is a bit of an older crowd if you go early. While I don't think the Heidelberg is awful, it is a different style that doesn't suit my palate as well as Metzgers. Now I need some sauerbraten! | ||
Lilpup Member Username: Lilpup Post Number: 3044 Registered: 06-2004 |
"Anyone on the eastside remember The Little Cafe on the West side of Gratiot at Barlow?" I remember my high school German teacher taking us there one year after a tour of St. Joseph's. I don't know if that was her church or not, but she knew it was one of the last places with Mass in German (she was from Sudatenland). It seems like, at the time, the church was threatened with closure or eminent domain for development and that was why she took us there. | ||
Lilpup Member Username: Lilpup Post Number: 3045 Registered: 06-2004 |
"My favorite places to visit in Germany/Austria are the Konditorei (sit down coffeehouse with bakery), as well as restaurants." Ok, I have to ask for a research project - Does anyone have memories of Henrici's on Randolph in Chicago? | ||
Texorama Member Username: Texorama Post Number: 97 Registered: 12-2006 |
Das Burghoff-Restaurant in Chicago ist leider geschlossen. The best German restaurant in the state is the Harbor Haus in Copper Harbor. Unfortunately, you could drive to NYC in less time than it would take you to get there. | ||
Fury13 Member Username: Fury13 Post Number: 2988 Registered: 10-2003 |
It's interesting that most "German" restaurants serve Bavarian or Austrian style food -- that would be Southern German. I don't know of any that specialize in Northern German (Prussian) style food. Perhaps most of the original German immigrants to Michigan were from southern Germany. | ||
Citylover Member Username: Citylover Post Number: 2721 Registered: 07-2004 |
The Metzger family has been around A2 forever.They (cousins) owned Metzgers as well as the old german. I was sorry to see them leave downtown.But the food quality is just as good in the new locale. | ||
Texorama Member Username: Texorama Post Number: 98 Registered: 12-2006 |
The Germans in Michigan mostly were indeed from the south--as the name "Frankenmuth" (Spirit of the Franks) implies, they were from Franconia and Swabia in the central south. They were not by and large Bavarians (although there were a few); the look of Frankenmuth was purely a marketing creation, put in place when it was feared that I-75 was going to miss Frankenmuth and put the roast chicken places, which were never really very German to begin with, out of business. The old Free Press magazine did a good story on this before its demise. For a place that's really German in Frankenmuth, although it's not a restaurant, try Willi's Sausage House. An odd bit of Ann Arbor lore: Bach School on the west side, whose name is pronounced something like the sound of a sheep rather than having the "ch" on the end like the composer, is pronounced that way because the original pronunciation, in Swabian dialect, has stuck. | ||
Detroitnerd Member Username: Detroitnerd Post Number: 1598 Registered: 07-2004 |
Something I never understood: My father referred to German-Americans as being not Northern or Southern, but "high" German. What does that mean? | ||
Kronprinz Member Username: Kronprinz Post Number: 633 Registered: 12-2006 |
Fury Said; It's interesting that most "German" restaurants serve Bavarian or Austrian style food -- that would be Southern German. I don't know of any that specialize in Northern German (Prussian) style food. If you've ever had boiled eel you would know why. My family was from Pomerania and referred to themselves as low germans, | ||
Texorama Member Username: Texorama Post Number: 99 Registered: 12-2006 |
Detroitnerd--I think "High" German in that sense refers again to the southerners. Germany gets more and more mountainous the farther south you go. The relationship between that term and the "High German" language or Hochdeutsch used as standard German I'm not sure about--as I understand it, Hochdeutsch, unlike standard Italian, was not a single dialect to begin with but a sort of compromise among several big ones forged as Germany became unified. That is, I think High German people do not necessarily speak High German (although now they would learn it in school). Low German or Plattdeutsch refers both to the northern dialects (which are darn near incomprehensible to a Bavarian) and to people of the low coastal country. I did bike around the area between Hamburg and Lübeck once, and yes, when you got out into the countryside and stopped at a little inn, the prized centerpiece of the menu was often some kind of eel dish. | ||
Nainrouge Member Username: Nainrouge Post Number: 305 Registered: 05-2006 |
I am pretty sure that High German refers to the language and those who speak it around the Hannover area. My wife, who is German and a German teacher, said that she has never heard of the term "High Germans" referring to people. | ||
Scottr Member Username: Scottr Post Number: 812 Registered: 07-2006 |
quote: When the original Lutheran missionaries came to the US from just southwest of Nuremburg (in Middle Franconia, which has been part of Bavaria since 1815), they agreed to live close together and keep their German customs and language - and even their loyalty to Germany. When they actually got here, however, they quickly spread out, and built their homes in an American style, and eventually abandoned many of the customs they agreed to uphold. As you stated, the current look came later and is purely a marketing creation, and obviously a successful one, although as others have pointed out chicken is hardly traditional German fare. I happen to be a direct descendant of the first of the settlers to agree to the voyage, Lorenz Loesel, as well as the Bickels, who came later. As for the topic at hand, despite my heritage, I've never been too fond of much German food. However, my dad would often take us to the Heidelberg when we were kids, if I remember correctly. I can't remember what I got, but it was good back then. but then again, I was a kid, and hardly a connoisseur. (Message edited by scottr on November 05, 2007) (Message edited by scottr on November 05, 2007) | ||
Caldogven Member Username: Caldogven Post Number: 129 Registered: 05-2006 |
Rock - I good friend of my did the painting inside of the Little Cafe, also the one on the outside of the building. He had to stop in the middle of the outside wall because some union guys saw him and asked (told) him to stop, seeing as he did not belong to the union, he did, but finished it at a later time. His last name is Cola, the same as the owners of the restaurant who lived on Barlow, as did the Cola's. | ||
Drifterlee Member Username: Drifterlee Post Number: 18 Registered: 09-2007 |
My grandmother's family were Kaltz and Kolbe and the Kaltzs were from Prussia in 1866, I think. The Kolbes were from the Polish border. My grandmother's cooking was more like Polish food, than German, although she spoke German. I thought Dakota Inns' food was okay. There was a German restaraunt on Van Dyke years ago. Can't remember the name. We used to go shopping at Six mile and Gratiot, which was a German area back in the 1950s and 1960s. | ||
Gazhekwe Member Username: Gazhekwe Post Number: 953 Registered: 08-2007 |
The Berghoff in Chicago was wonderful, but it closed a year or so ago. How horrid is that? Our favorite hereabouts is Metzger's Richter's is OK but no beer! | ||
Thecarl Member Username: Thecarl Post Number: 1111 Registered: 04-2005 |
a comment on "high german." the dialect known to frankenmuthers is "bayerisch," which is also referred to as "low german." it is a dialect associated with southern germany - while "high german," or "hoch deutsch," is more associated with northern germany. or, so i've been told. i took a look at an old map of what is now germany, and noticed that the southern state of bavaria shared a border with the franconian state. the geography seems consistent with the shared tongue. | ||
Thecarl Member Username: Thecarl Post Number: 1112 Registered: 04-2005 |
frankenmuth and chicken dinners... i think the modern-day tradition of chicken dinners in frankenmuth has its roots in the depression. given the economic dearth of the time, wiener schnitzel (veal) was not served on a regular basis - and given the volstead act, neither was beer! given the fact that frankenmuth was a farming community, and poultry was cheap at the time, the restaurants could attract patrons by offering inexpensive chicken dinners and - surreptitiously - beer! mind you, all the german breads, pastries, soups, noodles, sausages, etc., were delivered to the table true to form. these "sides" are still the main feature for many folks going to frankenmuth to have a chicken dinner, or traditional german fare. | ||
Drifterlee Member Username: Drifterlee Post Number: 21 Registered: 09-2007 |
I have been going to Frankenmuth since I was a baby and there were two hotels, Fischers and Zenders and they were both white and had big porches. My Mom has a pic of me in front of the "Chicken Dinners" sign back in the '50s. Those days, you dressed up to go there. I still love it. I love those chicken dinners! | ||
Gistok Member Username: Gistok Post Number: 5662 Registered: 08-2004 |
Yes High German spoken at its' purest is spoken around Hanover, the capital of the northern German state of Lower Saxony. In high school I took 4 years of German, and I was always envious of one of my classmates who was from Hanover (I was born in Franconia). Low German is spoken in the coastal regions of far northern Germany, and is known as Plattdeutsch. The word for water is "WASSER" in High German, and "WATTER" in low German. Most of Germany speaks variations of High German. What probably got some folks confused is that Bavaria, Germany's largest state (located in southern Germany) has Upper Bavaria located in the Alpine foothills and plateau regions of far southern Germany... and Lower Bavaria, which is farther north near the lower lying Danube plain. That upper/lower designation has to do with topographical elevation, and not compass points. Interestingly enough the Wiener, Frankfurter and Hamburger are all German specialties originating in the cities of those names (Wien is the German spelling of Vienna). | ||
Lefty2 Member Username: Lefty2 Post Number: 621 Registered: 07-2007 |
I think germans have the largest group of immigrants and americans, maybe outside of mexicans recently, i'm surprised there is not more food in this category. | ||
Gistok Member Username: Gistok Post Number: 5665 Registered: 08-2004 |
Lefty2 Germans have been the largest American minority for all of the 20th century. Over 50 million Americans claim German ancestry. Of course now, including illegal immigration, it's a different ballgame... | ||
Caldogven Member Username: Caldogven Post Number: 131 Registered: 05-2006 |
Drifterlee -- Like me you were from a time when you dressed appropriately where ever you went. Unlike today when some people don't seem to know or care how to dress! | ||
Reddog289 Member Username: Reddog289 Post Number: 49 Registered: 08-2007 |
all this talk of german food makes me want potato pancakes and a black forest torte for dessert. going to a lutheran school growing up i got to hear plenty of german talk as well as from my grandpa,who would laugh cause his [redneck] grandson would just look at him and wonder what is he saying, wasn,t little harry,s on jefferson a german resturant? | ||
Nainrouge Member Username: Nainrouge Post Number: 307 Registered: 05-2006 |
Of course you can also get German food at German Park during Oktoberfest and at the Carpathia Club during their events, but that won't help if you are looking for somewhere to take a date.... | ||
Gistok Member Username: Gistok Post Number: 5668 Registered: 08-2004 |
On Friday nights (5-8:30 PM) Carpathia Club (on Utica Rd. near Plumbrook in Sterling Heights) has a Fish Fry, where besides breaded fish, they also offer German fare, such as Schnitzel, Jaegerschnitzel, and other goodies. The price is only $5.50 (includes dessert and a salad) for a buffet dinner. | ||
Drankin21 Member Username: Drankin21 Post Number: 128 Registered: 12-2003 |
Thanks for the tip Gistok. I am jonesing pretty bad for some good German after moving home from Wiesbaden a couple of months ago. The Carpathia club will be my Friday stop since I've traded Hessen for Michigan. Danke. Haben sie in Deutschland gewohnen? | ||
Mikeg Member Username: Mikeg Post Number: 1247 Registered: 12-2005 |
There was considerable chain migration from the Sauerland region of Westphalia to the Detroit area and also to the town of Westphalia, northwest of Lansing [more]. Next month "Our German Story" will be shown on Channel 7. Here's an ad for one of the better German restaurants in turn-of-the-century Detroit.  |
