DARMSTADT, Germany — There ain’t nothing wrong with American beer. Even after living among and getting to love the German brews, sometimes pre-gaming for a night out with a six-pack of Coors Light while playing “Madden 2007” is just, well, awesome.
But Coors and Michelob and Natural Ice and Shlitz don’t serve food, while the makers of many German brews do. Take the City Braustübl in Darmstadt, Germany. It’s run by the good folks who brew Darmstädter beer, the stuff to drink in this little section of the country.
At “da City,” you can take your pick from 10 different locally brewed Darmstädter beers to go with some grub or just have it alone, from a relatively light pilsner all the way to wheat and other beers. In fact, a strong dunkel beer is kind of like eating bread anyway.
Particularly cool is the beer sampler. For about 3 euros, you can get little .1 liter samples of any four of the brewery’s specialties. It’s cheap and a nice way for you or your finicky friends to figure out what they want to drink without having to order a whole third of a liter. Then again, if your companion can’t get through .3 liters of a beer they don’t like, you should probably take them home.
The service is also very prompt, and as a rule, the staff will keep bringing you beers until you signal you don’t want another by putting your coaster on top of your glass.
But be sure to check out the excellent eats. Because tucked inside this low-ceiling restaurant, full of wooden booths and bundles of hops hanging from the ceiling, deliciousness resides.
This schnitzel is simply the schnitz. Imagine the most tender pork filet, battered ever so delicately so that the two flavors and textures blend seamlessly into bites of porkish divinity. The zweibelschnitzel, or schnitzel covered in an onion sauce, makes for an even better lunch or dinner, but even just a plain schnitzel with lemon is great.
City Braustübl also serves excellent bratwursts and sausages, as well as spareribs or steaks. Most of the entrees are a firm but fair 7 to 15 euros, and there’s close to 20 wines of all varieties on the menu as well.
The German world of food and drink never ceases to amaze, does it? Not only do you have a generally fit population downing rich beer and tons of pork, but their breweries run restaurants and feed you well.
Let’s see Budweiser do that.
To see previous After Hours reviews, go to: stripes.com/afterhours
