GERMAN TOWNS
The cookery of the country--Rathskeller and beer-cellars--
Dresden--Münich--Nüremburg--Hanover--Leipsic--Frankfurt--
Düsseldorf--The Rhine valley--"Cure" places--Kiel--Hamburg.
A German housewife who is a good cook can do marvels with a goose,
having half-a-dozen stuffings for it, and she knows many other ways of
treating a hare than roasting it or "jugging" it. She also is cunning in
the making of the bitter-sweet salads and _purées_ which are eaten with
the more tasteless kinds of meat; but, unfortunately, the good German
housewife does not as a rule control the hotel or restaurant that the
travelling gourmet is likely to visit, but rules in her own comfortable
home. The German Delikatessen, which form the "snacks" a Teuton eats at
any time to encourage his thirst, are excellent; and the smoked sprats,
and smoked and soused herrings, the various sausages and innumerable
pickles, are the best edible products of the Fatherland. The German meat
is as a rule poor. The best beef and mutton in the north has generally
been imported from Holland. The German is a great eater of fresh-water
fish,--pike, carp, perch, salmon, and trout all being found on his
menus, the trout being cooked _au bleu_. Zander, a fish which is partly
of the pike, partly of the trout species, is considered a great dainty.
The vegetables are generally spoiled in the cooking, being converted
into a _purée_ which might well earn the adjective "eternal." Even the
asparagus is spoilt by the native cook, being cut into inch cubes and
set afloat in melted butter. _Compotes_ sweet and sour, are served at
strange times during the repast, and lastly, as a sort of "old guard,"
the much-beloved but deadly Sauerkraut, made from both red and white
cabbage, is always brought up to complete the cook's victory. The
potatoes in Germany are generally excellent, the sandy soil being
suitable for their cultivation.
The cookery in the big hotels on much-frequented routes in Germany is
now almost universally a rather heavy version of the French art, with
perhaps a _compote_ with the veal to give local colour. In the small
hotels in little provincial towns the meals are served at the times that
the middle-class German of the north usually eats them, and are an
inferior copy of what he gets in his own home. As a warning I give what
any enterprising traveller looking for the food of the country from the
kitchen of a little inn may expect:--
Coffee at 8 A.M. with rolls, _Kaffee Brödchen_, and butter, and this
meal he will be expected to descend to the dining-room to eat.
A slight lunch at 11 A.M., at which the German equivalent for a
sandwich, a Brödchen cut and buttered, with a slice of uncooked ham,
lachs, or cheese between the halves, makes its appearance, and a glass
of beer or wine is drunk.
Dinner (Mittagessen) is announced between 1 and 2 o'clock, and is a long
meal consisting of soup, which is the water in which the beef has been
boiled; fish; a messy entrée, probably of Frankfurt sausage; the beef
boiled to rags with a _compote_ of plums or wortleberries and mashed
apples; and, as the sweet, pancakes.
Coffee is served at 4 P.M. with _Kaffee Küchen_, its attendant cake, and
at supper (Abendessen) one hot dish, generally veal, is given with a
choice of cold viands or sausages in thin slices--_leber Würst,
Göttinger Würst_, hot _Frankfurter Würst_, and black pudding.
If the above gruesome list does not warn the over-zealous inquirer, his
indigestion be on his own head.
In the south the cookery, though still indifferent, approximates more
nearly to the French bourgeois cookery.
A dinner-party at a private house of well-to-do German people is always
a very long feast, lasting at least two hours, and the cookery, though
good, is heavy and rich, and too many sauces accompany the meats. Many
of the dishes are not served _à la Russe_, but are brought round in
order that one may help one's self. Just as one is struggling into
conversation in defective German, a pike's head obtrudes itself over the
left shoulder, and it is necessary to twist in one's seat and go
through a gymnastic performance to take a helping.
Except in large cities the Germans are not given to feeding at
restaurants.
A golden rule, which may be held to apply all over Germany, is that it
is safe to take ladies wherever officers go _in uniform_.
The Rathskeller
In most German towns where there is a Rathhaus (a town hall) one finds
the Rathskeller, where beers or wine, according to the part of the
country, are the principal attraction, single dishes, cutlets, steaks,
cold meats, oysters, caviar being served more as an adjunct to the drink
than as an orthodox meal. The most noted of these Rathskeller are at
Bremen, Lübeck, and Hamburg, and that at Bremen is first in importance.
It is a mediæval Gothic hall, built 1405-1410, and it holds the finest
stock of Rhine and Moselle wine in the world. The wine is kept in very
old casks. One of the cellars is of particular interest as being the
"Rose" one, where the magistrates used to sit in secret conclave, _sub
rosa_, beneath the great rose carved upon the ceiling. The German
Emperor generally pays a visit to the Rathskeller when he visits Bremen.
In the Lübeck Rathskeller is the "admiral's table," said to be made from
a plank of the ship of the last Admiral of Lübeck, who flourished in
1570; and even more interesting than the Rathskeller is the
Schiffergesellschaft, with its strange motto and its even stranger
sign.
Beer-Cellars
Throughout Germany one meets in every town the large establishments,
beautifully decorated in the "Old German" style, of the various beer
companies, most of which are Munich ones, the Lowenbrau, the
Pschorrbrau, the Münchener Hofbrau, and others. Be careful to close the
metal top of your Schopps if you are drinking with German companions,
for if you do not they have the right, by the custom of the country, to
place their mugs on the top of the open one and demand another "round."
If when you have emptied your mug, you leave it with the lid open, the
waiter, without asking any questions, takes it away and refills it.
I now once more step down to allow A.B. to chat about the various German
towns.
Dresden
Dresden is not exactly an epicure's paradise, but there is one
restaurant which may, I think, be safely recommended as an establishment
of the first order. I am referring to the Englischer Garten, which is
managed by its proprietor, Herr Curt Roething. The principal entrance is
through a rather dingy looking archway in the Waisenhausstrasse, nearly
opposite the Victoria Salon Music Hall. The principal public rooms are
on the ground floor. The decorations used to be of a very dismal type,
but a year or two ago the rooms were all done up, and, without being
palatial or particularly artistic, they are now quite nice and bright in
their way.
There are also some rooms on the first floor which are generally used
for private parties. The atmosphere in the winter is apt to be rather
too sultry for English tastes, but it is perhaps less close than in most
other Dresden restaurants. At the back, there is an open space dignified
by the name of a garden, running down to a nice wide street, and here in
the summer a number of tables are laid, and one has the great advantage
of dining _al fresco_.
The attendance is well above the Dresden average and the waiters there
invariably clean and civil. The German waiter at his best is not often
one of the highest polished specimens of humanity, although some
compensation may be found in the almost paternal interest he takes in
_habitués_ or customers who have succeeded in winning his good graces.
The table linen and other appointments are up to the mark without being
luxurious.
In the middle of the day a huge dinner is served for 3s. By leaving out
one or two courses, you can get quite as much as you can eat for lunch,
and then you only have to pay 2s. This 2s. lunch is perhaps the
cheapest, and, at the price, the best meal of its kind that one could
possibly get at any restaurant. In its way, it is, I think, as
remarkable a performance as the 1s. 6d. Sunday morning breakfast at the
Grid at Oxford. It is, of course, not up to Chevillard or Paillard form,
but quite good enough for ordinary requirements. In the evening
everything is _à la carte_, and is almost as dear as the "set" meal in
the middle of the day is cheap. Single portions are, however, with some
very few exceptions, more than enough for two. The service is much more
_récherché_ than in the middle of the day; there is quite a large bill
of fare, and you can get all ordinary restaurant dishes, in addition to
a considerable selection of Delikatessen, such as oysters, caviar, fresh
truffles, peaches, etc., all of which are kept in good qualities.
Game and fish are also good at the Englischer Garten, and the partridges
and woodcocks are very well cooked; in fact, all their game can be
highly recommended. Live trout and other fresh-water fish are kept in a
tank, and you may generally rely on finding the soles and turbot fresh
as well. As regards price, unless you are an _habitué_ or make special
terms, a fairly little simple dinner will average out at 10s. a head,
exclusive of wine. It is well to order dinner beforehand, as the
culinary arrangements are not very expeditious. In the evening the
cuisine is by way of being first-class French art, but it just lacks the
lightness of touch which is characteristic of the best French cookery.
Wine is rather dear, but the higher-priced brands of hock, Moselle, or
claret are in some cases excellent. As to the champagnes found abroad,
unless they are specially made for the English market, they must not be
judged from an English standpoint, being as a rule far too sweet for our
taste.
An instance of this occurred to me at Rheims, when staying with one of
the champagne magnates for some shooting owned by a syndicate of some
of the large champagne shippers. We met for _déjeuner_ at their Châlet
de Chasse or club-house, each gentleman bringing his own wine. The
result was that one saw from ten to a dozen different famous brands of
champagne on the table.
My host asked me which sort I would prefer. "Du vin Brut, if you have
any," I replied. "Ah! Vous buvez de ce poison-là?" exclaimed he,
smiling. So they evidently did not agree with our taste for dry wine.
But you can make a pleasant and harmless drink of the sweet champagne in
summer by mixing it with an equal quantity of light Moselle, adding a
liqueur glass of curaçoa, and putting some wild strawberries or a large
peach cut up into the concoction with some ice.
To return to the Englischer Garten. They also keep some particularly
good Pilsen beer which they serve highly iced: that of course is as it
should be, but it is apt to have disastrous consequences if one is not
accustomed to it. Being a wine restaurant they do not expect you to
drink beer except as a supplement to your wine, but if you make a point
of it you can have it throughout. An additional charge of 6d. per head
is made for the set mid-day meal if wine is not ordered.
The _clientèle_ is by way of being "smart" in the evening, and
there is generally a fair sprinkling of officers of the two
crack Saxon cavalry regiments,--the Dresden Horse Guards and
the Oschatz Lancers. Evening clothes, or, better still, a dress
jacket and a black tie are advisable, but by no means _de rigueur_.
The-cloth-cap knickerbocker-cum-Norfolk-jacket-get-up, unfortunately
so frequently affected by travelling Englishmen in continental
capitals, is certainly _not_ to be recommended.
In the middle of the day the company is more bourgeois, and on Sundays,
and occasionally on Saturdays, the place is apt to be unpleasantly
crowded. In the evening, except on race nights, there is always plenty
of room; in fact it is usually rather empty till after the plays are
over.
The other restaurants would not appeal to a gourmet but, for a change,
some of them are well worth visiting according to the season. For
instance:--
The Belvedere, an old-established and very popular institution,
delightfully situated on the Bruhlsche Terrasse, with a charming view
over the Elbe and the principal architectural features of the town.
Essentially a place for the summer, when one can take one's meals out of
doors on its terraces and balconies. There is a beer and a wine
department, and in the former an excellent band plays; but it is
difficult to secure a table within earshot as there is always a great
crowd. The attendance is indifferent and the cuisine fair and wholesome,
though no doubt you could get a good dinner if you took a little trouble
and ordered it.
The public dinners which take place there in the large banqueting hall
are quite creditable productions, and the position, view, and fresh air
all combine to render it a very pleasant hot-weather resort.
The Stadt Gotha. The wine restaurant is small and quaintly decorated.
Very popular with the upper and middle classes and _extremely_
respectable, cuisine very fair, set meals, and especially supper after
the play very inexpensive. But if you order _à la carte_, like most
other places, it is rather dear. A capital beer restaurant in connection
with it and good; a thoroughly plain German cooking served here.
Tiedemann and Grahl's, in the Seestrasse, is a typical German Weinstube
with a large _clientèle_ of _habitués_, mostly men, but ladies can go
there. The owners being large wine merchants have some first-rate wine
at prices averaging rather lower than the Englischer Garten. But there
is a very extensive list and the quality is not altogether uniform, so
if you can suborn a friendly waiter he could help you considerably.
Excellent oysters and smoked salmon are to be had here, but the place is
apt to be rather crowded and noisy. The appointments are of the simplest
and most unpretentious kind. Prices, moderately high--about two-thirds
of the Englischer Garten. Set meals are served, but _à la carte_ is more
usual. The waiters, being institutions like most of the guests, are
inclined to be a little off-hand and familiar, and there is altogether a
free and easy and homely tone about the place, but it is perfectly
respectable.
Neues Palais de Saxe, on the Neumarket, is owned and managed by Herr
Muller. Very fair cuisine; good set meals; _à la carte_ rather more
expensive; speciality made of oysters and _écrevisses_, which latter are
served in all sorts of fascinating ways. Not at all a bad place for
supper after the theatre, but perhaps a trifle dull.
Kneist, in a little street off the Altmarkt, called, I think, the Grosse
Brudergasse, is managed by the proprietor whose name it bears. This may
perhaps be called the leading beer restaurant of Dresden; it is
remarkably popular and considered very good. Worth a visit as a typical
though favourable specimen of its kind. Much frequented by officers and
officials; here you find good plain fare served in the simplest of
fashions. Meals _à la carte_ and quite inexpensive; cuisine purely
German, homely and wholesome, with excellent beer, especially Erlanger.
The atmosphere is usually hot, thick, and stuffy, but the _clientèle_
does not seem to mind it.
In a little back room the principal dignitaries of the Saxon Court,
State, and Army are wont to forgather every morning for their
Frühschoppen,--a kind of early, largely liquid lunch, where, if rumour
can be trusted, a good deal of important business is informally
discussed and settled.
The Kaiser Palast, on the Pirnaischerplatz, is a huge but not
particularly attractive establishment with wine and beer departments.
The best Pilsen beer in Dresden is obtainable at the Bierstall in a
little street off the Altmarkt, in a somewhat disreputable quarter of
the town; it is not a suitable place for ladies, but is quite
respectable for men. The beer is well worth sampling, but the air is not
fit to breathe.
Good Munich beer is to be had at the Zacherlbrau in the König Johann
Strasse.
As regards dining at hotels.
The Savoy (Sedanstrasse), the Europaischen Hof (Pragerstrasse), and the
Bellevue (Theaterplatz) rank about equal. The set meals are of the usual
hotel type; the _à la carte_ prices are, of course, high. The preference
of the English is generally given to the Savoy, but the Europaischer Hof
is the most popular with German society. The Bellevue is very pleasant
in the summer, having a large verandah with a lovely view overlooking
the Elbe, where one can dine in the hot weather.
Munich
There are no absolutely first-class restaurants in Munich, although the
Hôtel de Russie is certainly the best and now boasts of a capital
_chef_. It is under the same directorate as the Vierjahrzeiten, but
being a better class of establishment, with more modern appointments, it
has eclipsed the latter. It is now a case of the Vierjahrzeiten's nose
being put out of joint by its own child. Yet the latter, though rather
old-fashioned, is still very comfortable and has an American bar.
Schleich's Restaurant is very good, as is also the Continental, on the
Maximiliens Platz, and the Hungärische Hof.
You should visit the Hofbrauhaus in the Platz, if only to drink as good
a glass of beer as one could wish to have. It is a fine and typical
specimen of a German Bierhalle, very respectable and much frequented.
After having had your first Schoppen (for having once tasted you
invariably want more) you rinse out your glass at a handy fountain
before presenting it to be refilled; but the person who takes your
Schoppen along with several others in each hand, invariably with
unerring instinct hands you back your same Schoppen. As an appetizer for
the beer to which it is supposed to give an additional zest, they place
a large radish about the size of an apple in a sort of turnip-cutting
machine which ejects it in thin rings; it is then washed and put into a
saucer with a little salt and water and eaten without any other
accompaniment than the beer; it may be an acquired taste, but it appears
to be very popular.
Nüremberg
Nüremberg being essentially a commercial and industrial town, it follows
that expensive restaurants and high living are not one of the features
of it. Yet the Bierkellers there are institutions that have existed
since the time of Albert Dürer and his companions.
Among the best of these is the Rathhauskeller (or town-hall cellar),
kept by Carl Giessing, a most picturesque place, as indeed is everything
in Nüremberg; also the Fottinger in the Königstrasse and the
Herrenkeller in the Theaterstrasse. At all of these good meals can be
obtained at moderate prices, and hock is the best wine to order.
Perhaps the most interesting place in this storehouse of beautiful
antiquities is the hostelry known as the Bratwurstglöcklein, or Little
Bell of the Roast Sausage; here the specialities are excellent beer and
the very best of diminutive sausages made fresh every day, also
Sauerkraut. The bell is still suspended on the end wall by an
ornamental, hammered iron bracket. Built about the year 1400, it is one
of the most ancient, if not the oldest, refreshment house in the world,
and has been used as such ever since. Here did the Meistersingers
forgather, Hans Sachs, Peter Vischer, Albrecht Dürer, Wellebald
Pirkheimer, Veit Stoss and other celebrated men in Nüremberg's history
in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Great historical interest has
always attached to this house, where the best class of entertainment is
to be had. The present owners profess to have many of the original
drinking-mugs, cans, etc., that these old customers habitually used and
which were individually reserved for them. The proprietors of the
Bratwurstglöcklein are so particular with regard to the character of
their sausages that they are made twice a day. Consequently the sausage
they give you in the evening has not even been made that morning; it
dates its construction only from mid-day.
There is a doggerel rhyme written of the establishment that runs very
much in the same strain in which I have translated it:--
Not many noble strangers
Can possibly refrain,
When once they've ate our sausages
From eating them again.
And it usually strikes them,
If they have not yet found it out,
That these sausages are splendid
When they're mixed with Sauerkraut.
The only thing they rail at,
When they fain would criticise,
Is to wish the little sausage
Were a little larger size.
At the principal hotels, such as the Grand, Strauss, Württemberger Hof,
and Victoria, very good meals can be procured--the mid-day
_table-d'hôte_ prices varying from 3s. to 3s. 6d. Perhaps the best of
these is the Victoria, which rejoices in a grill-room, and where the
delicacies of the season are available.
There are American bars at the "American Bar," Karolinenstrasse, the
Hôtel Strauss, same street, and at the Wittelsbacker Hof in the
Pfaunenschmiedsgasse.
The cafés are the Bristol in the Josephs Platz, the Central in the
Karolinenstrasse, the Habsburg and the Imperial both in the
Königstrasse; but do not go to any of these under the idea that they
represent the Café Anglais in Paris.
A very pleasant resort in the summer is the Maxfeld Restauration in the
Stadt Park. It is in the open air, and an excellent band plays at 5 P.M.
on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays. A fair dinner is provided, but it
is better to order in advance by telephone.
Hanover
The Georgshalle is, and has been for the last forty years, the best café
and restaurant in Hanover, but is now incorporated with Kasten's Hotel.
It was the usual and, for many years, the only place of resort where a
simple and decent meal could be obtained. I am not talking of the _haute
cuisine_, because it does not exist in this city.
Kasten's Hotel is good of its kind. The Kaiser has dined there on his
occasional visits to the town. Private balls and other entertainments
are given there, and the wines are generally good.
The Tip Top Restaurant, in the Karmarschstrasse, is a comparatively
modern, pleasant, and cheery _locale_, with a good bill of fare. On
account of its proximity to the theatre it is much frequented for
suppers after the play.
There are several Biergärten open in the summer where military and other
bands perform, but nothing but ordinary refreshment is to be obtained
here.
Leipzig
Leipzig has one good restaurant, the Restaurant Päge on the
Marktplatz,--at least it is the best in the town.
The Hôtel Hauffe, in the Russplatz, is an old-established hotel, is well
conducted, and has a restaurant where one can get quite a decent dinner
if ordered beforehand.
There is also another, Friedrichkrause, Katharinensbresse, No. 6, but
with these three the culinary capabilities of Leipzig are practically at
an end. Of course there are a number of Bierhalle and Kellern to
accommodate the students and music pupils, for which latter Leipzig is
the home of instruction.
Frankfurt-am-Main
Frankfurt gives me the idea of having more wealthy people in it than any
other town I know, and I do not think I am very far wrong in this. The
Central Railway Station is the finest one can imagine.
It has at least four first-class restaurants attached to hotels.
The Hôtel d'Angleterre, or Englischer Hof, in the centre of the city,
the Rossmarkt, is a fine old hotel. Our present king, when Prince of
Wales, generally stayed there when passing through. The famous German
philosopher, Schopenhauer, dined there regularly for thirty years--from
1831 to 1860, though I cannot advance that as any great recommendation,
for the ways and tastes of philosophers are usually somewhat erratic. I
have no doubt, however, that the cuisine has materially altered since
Schopenhauer's time.
The Frankfurter Hof, built about thirty years ago, is a larger
establishment with all the modern improvements. It is much frequented by
Englishmen and Americans, but rather lacks the quiet of the Angleterre.
It has a good cuisine, for M. Ritz, who has an interest in the hotel,
has seen to that, and magnificent reception rooms where many balls,
parties, weddings, etc., take place. A band plays there during the
greater part of the day, and it is advisable to get as far distant as
possible from it when dining. In the restaurant one can obtain _à la
carte_ a very excellently cooked dinner.
The Palast Hôtel Furstenhof is of the highest class and was only
recently opened. It has beautifully decorated rooms, a good restaurant,
a dining-hall, and an excellent American bar. Herr Schill the former
head waiter of the Englischer Hof--his _nom de guerre_ is Mons.
Jules--assiduously sees to the comfort and welfare of his guests. Like
Mons. Ritz he has a large following of friends.
The Hôtel Imperial was opened about two years ago, and although a little
smaller than the Frankfurter Hof or the Palast has a most aristocratic
_clientèle_. Being close to the Opera House, its restaurant is much
patronised in the season by people who during the _entr'acte_, or to
pass over a more or less tedious act, prefer to partake of light
refreshments and a cigarette on the terrace in the open air. There is an
American bar there also. The _élite_ of Frankfurt, on the rare occasions
when they do sup after going to the theatre or opera, generally order
their meals at one of the restaurants of the leading hotels; but
Frankfurt does not, as a rule, keep late hours.
The Palmen Garten is a pleasant summer restaurant a little way out of
the town, on the Bockenheimerstrasse. It has a fine dining-hall, or you
may sit at _al-fresco_ tables while the regimental band discourses
excellent music. The cooking is good--German cuisine, but nothing high
class. It is a very pleasant spot to visit in the hot weather; on fête
days one is treated there to the luxury of fireworks, etc.
Buerose ought to be mentioned as a quiet restaurant, where there is a
_spécialité_ of _hors-d'oeuvre_ and excellent oysters.
Lovers of good beer will find at the Allemania, if they ask for a
Schoppen of the Royal Court Hofbrau, exactly what they have been craving
for; and the Pilsener at the Kaiserhof Restaurant in the Goetheplatz is
equally good. One has to sample several glasses of each before one can
definitely make up one's mind as to which is the best.
Düsseldorf
The best restaurant in Düsseldorf is that of the Park Hotel on the
Corneliusplatz. It is one of the best on the Rhine, and was opened in
April 1902 on the occasion of the Düsseldorf Exhibition; it is a fine
building, and has pretty grounds and ornamental water adjoining it. It
is frequented by the highest German nobility, but yet its prices are
moderate.
Luncheons are served at 3 marks, dinners at 5 marks. Suppers for 3 marks
are served at _prix fixe_, or one can order _à la carte_. The Moselle
wines are exceptionally good. There is an American bar in the hotel. The
restaurant, handsomely decorated in the style of Louis XIV., is opposite
the Opera House and overlooks the Hofgärten.
It has no specialities in the way of food beyond the usual German and
French dishes.
At the Thürnagel Restaurant, also in the Corneliusplatz, you are likely
to find the artistic colony in session. The restaurant dates back to the
year 1858. There is a good collection of wine in the cellars, and a word
may be said in favour of its cookery.
The Rhine Valley
The Rhine valley is not a happy hunting ground for the gourmet. Cologne
has its picturesque Gurzenich in which is a restaurant; its inhabitants
eat their oysters in the saloon in the Kleine Bugenstrasse, part of a
restaurant there; and there are restaurants in the Marienburg and in the
Stadt garden, and the Flora and Zoological Gardens. At every little town
on either bank there are one or more taverns with a view where the usual
atrocities which pass as food in provincial Germany are to be obtained,
good beer, and generally excellent wine made from the vineyards on the
mountain side. Now and again some restaurant-keeper has a little pool of
fresh water in front of his house, and one can select one's particular
fish to be cooked for breakfast. The wines of the district are far
better than its food.
Rudesheim, Geisenheim, Schloss Johannisberg, the Steinberg Abbey above
Hattenheim, are of course household words, and the man who said that
travelling along the Rhine was like reading a restaurant wine-list had
some justification for his Philistine speech. One does not expect to
discover the real Steinberg Cabinet in a village inn, and the
Johannisberg generally found in every hotel in Rhineland is a very
inferior wine to that of the Schloss, and is grown in the vineyards
round Dorf Johannisberg. I have memories of excellent bottles of wine at
the Ress at Hattenheim, and at the Engel at Erbach; but the fact that I
was making a walking tour may have added to the delight of the draughts.
The Marcobrunn vineyards lie between Hattenheim and Erbach. The Hôtel
Victoria at Bingen has its own vineyards and makes a capital wine; and
in the valley of the river below Bingen almost every little town and
hill--Lorch, Boppard, Horcheim, and the Kreuzberg--has its own
particular brand, generally excellent. Assmanhausen, which gives such an
excellent red wine, is on the opposite bank to Bingen and a little below
it. The Rhine boats have a very good assortment of wines on board, but
it is wise to run the finger a little way down the list before ordering
your bottle, for the very cheapest wines on the Rhine are, as is usual
in all countries, of the thinnest description. Most of the British
doctors on the Continent make the greater part of their living by
attending their fellow-countrymen who drink everywhere anything that is
given them free, and who hold that the _vin du pays_ must be drinkable
because it _is_ the wine of the country. Our compatriots often swallow
the throat-cutting stuff which the farm labourers and stable hands
drink, sooner than pay a little extra money for the sound wine of the
district. The foreigner who came to Great Britain and drank our cheapest
ale and rawest whisky would go away with a poor impression of the
liquors of _our_ country. Drink the wine of the district where they make
good wine, but do not grudge the extra shilling which makes all the
difference in quality. The dinners and lunches on the big express Rhine
steamers are a scramble for food; but on some of the smaller and slower
boats, where the caterer has fewer passengers to feed, the meals are
often very good. I have a kindly memory of an old head steward, a
fatherly old gentleman in a silk cap shaped somewhat like an accordion,
who provided the meals on a leisurely steamer which pottered up the
Rhine, stopping at every village. He gave us local delicacies, took an
interest in our appetites, and his cookery, though distinctively German,
was also very good. In a land where all the big hotels fill once a day
and empty once a day, and where the meals are in heavy-handed imitation
of bourgeois French cookery, that old man with his stews and roasts, and
pickles, veal, and pork, sausages big and sausages small, strange
cheeses, and Delikatessen of all kinds was a good man to meet.
German "Cure" Places
First of course amongst the places in Germany where men and women mend
their constitutions and enjoy themselves at the same time comes
Homburg
The "Homburg Dinner" has become a household word, meaning that a certain
number of men and women agree to dine together at one of the hotels,
each one paying his or her own share in the expenses. During the past
two years, owing to the desire to spend money shown by some
millionaires, British and American, who are not happy unless they are
giving expensive dinners every night with a score of guests, this pretty
old custom seems likely now to die out. In no German town are there
better hotels than at Homburg, and one dines on a warm day in very
pleasant surroundings, for Ritter's has its world-famous terrace, and
some of the other hotels have very delightful open-air restaurants in
their gardens. Simplicity, good plain food well cooked, is insisted on
by the doctors at Homburg, and therefore a typical Homburg dinner is a
very small affair compared to German feasts over which the doctors do
not have control. This is a dinner of the day at Ritter's, taken
haphazard from a little pile of menus, and it may be accepted as a
typical Homburg dinner:--
Potage Crécy au Riz.
Truite de Lac. Sce. Genevoise. Pommes Natures.
Longe de Veau à la Hongroise.
Petits pois au Jambon.
Chapons de Châlons rôtis.
Salade and Compots. Pêches à la Cardinal.
Fruits. Dessert.
The hotels at Homburg are always quite full in the season. No
hotel-keeper puts any pressure on his guests to dine at his hotel, and
you may have your bedroom in one hotel and dine at another every night
of your life so far as the proprietors care. All those who have the
luck to be made members of the Golf Club take tea there, and eat cake
such as is only to be found at school-treats in England. The restaurant
at the Kurhaus goes up and down in public favour. Everybody goes to its
terrace in the evening, and fashion at the present time has, I believe,
ordained that on one particular day of the week it is "smart" to dine
there. If the restaurant remains as excellently catered for as it was
when I last visited Homburg, it is well worth including in the round of
dinners.
Wiesbaden
At Wiesbaden you generally dine where you sleep, in your hotel. I myself
have generally stayed at the Kaiser Hof, because I like to eat my supper
on its creeper-hung terrace and look across the broad valley to the
Taunus hill; but there are half-a-dozen hotels in the town, the Nassauer
Hof in particular, which many people consider the best hotel in Germany,
having capital restaurants, serving _table-d'hôte_ meals, attached to
them. The Rose has a little terrace, looking on to the gardens, which is
a pleasant supping-place. The old Kurhaus, a tumble-down building, is
disappearing or has disappeared, and a new and gorgeous building is to
take its place. The restaurant at the old Kurhaus always had a good
reputation, and to eat one's evening meal, for every one sups and does
not dine, at one of its little tables under the trees, looking at the
lake beneath the moonshine and listening to the band, was one of the
pleasures of Wiesbaden. It was fairly cheap, and I thought the food well
cooked, and served as hot as one could expect it in the open air. I have
little doubt that the new restaurant will carry on the pleasant ways of
the old one. The proprietor is Herr Ruthe, who is caterer to several
crowned heads, and who is always on the spot and delighted to be
consulted as to the dishes to be ordered for a dinner.
The wine-house, the Rathskeller, is one of the sights of the place.
Therein are quaint frescoes and furniture, there the usual German food
is obtainable, and _you_ have a choice of German wines such as is
obtainable in few other wine-drinking places in Germany.
Any one who likes the open tarts of apple and other fruits--a rather
sticky delicacy it always seems to me--can eat them at ease of an
afternoon looking at the beautiful view from the Neroberg or watching
the Rhine from under the trees of the hotel gardens at Biebrich.
Baden-Baden
The first-class hotels in Baden-Baden are so well catered for
that few people wander abroad to take their food, but the restaurant
of the Conversation Haus is a good one. The little restaurant, with
a shady terrace on the Alte-Schloss Hohenbaden, has achieved
celebrity for its trout _au bleu_ and good cookery, and the
marvellous view over the Rhine valley makes it a notable little place.
There are many refreshment-places on the roads along which the patients
take their walks, but as milk is the staple nourishment sold, they
hardly find a place in a guide for gourmets. The wines of the Duchy,
both red and white, are excellent.
Ems
Ems has a restaurant in the Kursaal, near which the band plays in the
evening, said to be fairly good; and there is a restaurant close to the
Baderlei, the cliff of rock crowned by a tower, and another on the
summit of the Malberg, the hill up which the wire-rope railway runs; but
I have only meagre information as to whether the food obtainable at them
is good, bad, or indifferent.
Aachen (Aix-la-Chapelle)
Henrion's Grand Hotel is the favourite dining-place of the Anglo-Saxon
colony in Aachen. M. Intra, the proprietor, lays himself out to attract
the English. The German civil servants and the doctors have a club-table
at which they dine, and they exact fines from the members of their club
for drinking wine which costs more than a certain price, etc., etc.,
these fines being collected in a box and saved until they make a sum
large enough to pay for a special dinner. Every member of this club is
required to leave in his will a money legacy to the club to be expended
in wine drunk to his memory. There are two _table-d'hôte_ meals at 1.30
and at 7 P.M. At the first the dishes are cooked according to the
German cuisine, at the second according to the French. Suppers are
served in the restaurant at any hour.
Lennertz's restaurant and oyster-saloon in the Klostergasse is a
curious, low-ceilinged, old-fashioned house which, before Henrion's came
into favour, had most of the British patronage. Its cooking is
excellent, and the German Hausfraus used to be sent to Lennertz's to
study for their noble calling. The _carte de jour_ has not many dishes
on it. Everything has to be ordered _à la carte_, though the prices are
reasonable, and it is possible to make a bargain that a dinner shall be
given for a fixed price. The _Omelettes Soufflées_ are a speciality of
the house. The fish used at Lennertz's comes from Ostend, and the Dutch
oysters are excellent.
A restaurant opposite the theatre has good cookery but is expensive.
Henry, who presides over the Anglo-American bar in the Kaiser Passage,
is an excellent cook and turns out wonderful dishes with the aid of a
chafing-dish. He learned his cookery at the Waldorf, and at the Grand,
in Paris. His partner, Charlie, is of the Café de Paris, Monte Carlo.
Another American bar where food is obtainable is in the Grand Monarque
Hotel.
The Alt-Bayern in Wirischsbongardstrasse is the beer-house which is most
to be recommended; and the Germania, in Friedrich-Williamplatz, is
celebrated for its coffee.
Kiel
Kiel Harbour is as beautiful and picturesque a spot as one can well
imagine. The approach to it from the Elbe by the Kaiser Wilhelm
Canal--52 miles long, 70 yards broad, and about 30 feet deep, with
pretty banks on either side, is part of the river Eider. It is lighted
along its entire length with electric lamps, and constitutes as pleasant
a waterway as one can desire.
The hotels and restaurants are neither numerous nor _récherché_, and,
with the exception of the sailor's rendezvous, are mostly closed during
the winter. The Seebadeanstalt is about the best restaurant; it was
built by Herr Krupp and is managed by an Englishman. Above it are the
fine rooms of the Imperial Yacht Club. These, during the regatta week,
which generally takes place at the end of June, are crowded with
yachtsmen of all nationalities, to whom the Kaiser dispenses most
gracious hospitality. When the extensive anchorage, surrounded by green
and wooded hills, is full of every description of yacht, foremost among
which is the _Hohenzollern_ and many German battleships, it forms a
scene at once impressive and gay. One can hardly blame the Germans for
annexing it, however galling its annexation by Germany must have been to
its former owners.
The Hôtel Germania has a very fair restaurant attached to it.
The Rathskeller is well-conducted, and was built by the municipal
authorities.
The Weinstuben, Paul Fritz, is a good refreshment-place, but is mostly
frequented by the students and officers.
The Seegarten is a pretty little place overlooking the harbour, where
German beer is the principal article of commerce.
At the Münchener Bürgerbrau the beer is good but the surroundings
dismal.
Hamburg
At Hamburg is to be found Pfordte's Restaurant, which has gained a
European reputation; indeed, it is spoken of as the "Paillard's of North
Germany." The following description of the restaurant is from the pen of
an English _habitué_ of the house:--
Pfordte's Restaurant, which dates back to the year 1828, was originally
one of the numerous Kellers or cellars which are situated in many of the
basements of the houses near the Alster and Bourse at Hamburg. Their
function is to provide luncheons, dinners, or suppers, and their chief
_spécialités_ are oysters, lobsters, other shell-fish, game, and
truffles. They are much frequented by business men for luncheon, and by
playgoers for supper after the theatre.
Mr. Wilkins was the first proprietor, and in 1842 it was in the hands of
a company. In 1860 Pfordte, who had become director of this Keller,
aimed at higher things. Being a good organiser and administrator, he
eventually moved the Keller to the street that runs from the Alster Dam
to the Rathaus gardens, and there, at the corner of the gardens,
established a restaurant which is one of the best in the world.
Pfordte is a man of small stature but of most courteous and polished
manners, and is no exception to the general rule that small men have
usually great brains. His restaurant is _facile princeps_ of all the
houses of entertainment at Hamburg where riches abound, and where good
cheer is scientifically appreciated. Entering the establishment from the
street, you find yourself in a fair-sized hall, where a deferential
servant in livery is prompt to relieve men of their overcoats and ladies
of their wraps. On the left, a large folding-door gives entrance to
three public rooms _en suite_ which look out on the Rathaus gardens, and
are furnished with small tables--some for two, some for four, some for
six persons. Here a most excellent dinner or luncheon can be obtained at
short notice. The service is capital. The waiters are German, but appear
to be conversant with every tongue in the world. All sorts and
conditions of men have to visit Hamburg, the great centre of maritime
commerce in Germany. All seem to be able at Pfordte's to give orders in
their own language, and find themselves understood. English seems as
much spoken here as German.
On the right of the entrance-hall, a fine staircase leads to the first
floor, where are rooms for private parties of any number, from two to a
hundred. Hardly any important public dinner is held at Hamburg which
does not take place at Pfordte's. The cuisine is perfect. The menus are
original, the wines are of the best. If you are at Hamburg in the
proper season, do not fail at Pfordte's to order oysters, trout from the
hill streams, partridge with apricots, and _truffes en serviette_.
To the above there is but little to add except that there is a certain
cosiness about Pfordte's, a sense of personal supervision, which is
difficult to define but which everybody who dines there feels and
appreciates. One Londoner put it thus, referring to the little rooms,
"It's what Kettner's ought to be." I append a menu of a dinner of the
day at Pfordte's, there being a choice of four or five dishes in each
course. The charge is 6 marks. This bill of fare is by no means an
exceptionally good one. Indeed it is below the average rather than
above. The "English" adjective to the celery is used to distinguish it
from celleriac or "Dutch" celery, which is largely used in salads in
North Germany. The _Junger Puter_ is a very little turkey poult. It is
to the turkey what the _poussin_ is to the fowl:--
Potage à la Stuart.
Potage crème d'orge à la Viennoise.
Potage purée de concombres au cerfeuil.
Consommé Xavier.
Filets von Seezungen (soles) à la Joinville.
Steinbutt (turbot) sauce moscovite.
Rheinlachs kalt, sauce mayonnaise.
Boeuf braisé à l'alsacienne.
Rehbrücken (venison) à la Conti.
Lammviertel à la Provençale.
Roast-beef à la Clamart.
Artischoken sauce hollandaise.
Salat braisirt mit jungen Erbsen.
Engl. Sellerie mit Mark.
Junge Flageolets à la Maître.
Spanishe Pfefferschoten farcirt.
Junge Ente (duckling).
Rebhuhn (partridge).
Junge Puter.
Escarolle-Salat mit Tomaten.
Erdbeer-Eiscrème panaché Fruchttorte.
Kasé.
Dress clothes are not _de rigueur_ when dining at Pfordte's. Bordeaux
wines are a speciality of the house, as indeed they are in every good
restaurant in Hamburg and Bremen, better claret being found in those
cities than anywhere else outside France that I know of. There is a
celebrated picture in Pfordte's hall which has a story attached to it.
The painter wished to give a dinner to his club friends, and consulted
Pfordte as to the price. Pfordte said that he would supply the dinner,
and that the artist afterwards should paint him a picture. The dinner
was given to the entire club, and was said to have been the best dinner
ever served in Germany: the artist showed his appreciation of it by
painting a masterpiece.
This is a specimen of one of Pfordte's dinners of ceremony:--
_Nectar old sherry._ | Natives.
| Astrachan Caviar.
| -----
1894 _Louis Roederer | Potage Malmesbury.
grand vin sec._ | -----
| Truffes du Périgord à la
| Savarin.
| -----
1876 _Geisenheimer | Saiblinge aus dem Königssee.
Hothenberg-Auslese._ | Bayrische Sauce.
| -----
1889 _Chât. Dauzac | Engl. Hammebrücken
Labarde (Tischwein)._ | à la Courdomage.
| -----
1878 _Chât. Marquis | Côtelettes de Macassins
de Therme._ | à la Montalembert.
| -----
1869 _Clos St-Hobert._ | Suprême von Strassburger
| Gänselebern in Madeira.
| -----
| Crème de Chicorées aux
| pointes d'asperges vertes.
| Fonds d'artichauts
| à la St-Charles.
| -----
1874 _Chât. Larose | Enten von Rouen.
Schloss-Olbzug._ | Salade à la Française.
| -----
_Moet and Chandon | Pouding glacé à la Jules
Crémant blanc._ | Lecomte.
| -----
| Dessert.
At the Zoological Gardens there is a good restaurant where one dines in
a balcony overlooking the beer-garden, in which a military band plays.
The oyster-cellars of Hamburg are noted for their excellent lunches.
_Bouillon_, cutlets, steaks, caviar, lachs, and other viands are served,
and English "porter," generally Combe's stout, is much drunk. Another
British production, "Chester" cheese, which is red Cheshire, is much in
demand. At supper in these cellars, and also in Berlin, caviar is much
in demand, the small black Baltic variety, not the Russian, which is
lighter in colour and larger in grain. A large pot of it is put on the
table in a bowl of ice, and your Hamburger, who is a good judge of
victuals as he is of drink, makes his supper of it.
The Rathskeller of Hamburg is in the modern Rathhaus, and is finely
decorated in "Alt-deutsch" style with frescoes and paintings by
well-known artists.
In the summer gardens down the Elbe, good wines are to be obtained; and
at the Fährhaus at Blauenesse.
The Alster Café is very beautifully situated. It has three tiers of
rooms, and from its balconies one can look either landward or on to the
river, which at night, with the lights reflected in its water, is very
beautiful. The rooms of the café are decorated in the style of the
seventeenth century.