On our first night in Munich, we tried to visit the Hofbräuhaus around 7pm...Mistake...no seats, long lines, better luck next time. We came back around 2pm the next day, and had better luck. We had a lot of fun, but learned a lot of lessons about dining at a German Brew House. But before we get into all that, here's a little history, and a borrowed photo. I could not, for the life of me, get anything other than a blurry photo of the servers carrying all those steins of beer. This photo is from a blog called True Beer. Here's the link:http://blog.truebeer.com/files/images/Oktoberfest-Waitress.jpg
One of my friends who lived in Germany refers to the Hofbräuhaus as a tourist trap. I suppose in many respects, it is. It is the first public tavern established in Germany, it serves great food and beer, and...pretty ladies carry around six to ten full steins at a time to your table for your drinking pleasure...Who wouldn't want to see that??? So yes, the Hofbräuhaus is a mecca for hungry and thirsty tourists from all over the world. Lest you think, it's only tourists that frequent the Hofbräuhaus, the restaurant's website lists nearly 100 regular groups, as well as the days of the week their tables are reserved. Pretty cool! As I said before, we had a great time, but our visits to the Hofbräuhaus were not without adversity. We are willing to share our experiences with you, so that you, our friends and followers, will not suffer the same sad fate of dear Husband...receiving no meal at all! **Collective sigh here**
Besides being a restaurant and brew house, the Hofbräuhaus also has a museum upstairs you can walk through while you're waiting for your order. The picture above is of Seven, who is seated in front of a replica of a traditional German meal from days gone by. What??? No wienerschnitzel???? Speaking of history...here's a little history of the Hofbräuhaus from their own website....Wilhelm V, Duke of Bavaria (1579 – 1597), had a thirsty and demanding royal household, which was dissatisfied with the beer brewed in Munich. As a result, beer had to be imported to Munich from the city of Einbeck in Lower Saxony. Wilhelm ordered his royal court to come up with a way to reconcile cost and pleasure. On September 27, 1589, the chamberlains and council members, C. Strabl, A. Amasmeyr, S. Prew and G. Griesmair, approached him with an idea: why not build their own brewery? Wilhelm welcomed the plan with open arms. As a matter of fact, that same day, he recruited the master brewer of the Geisenfeld Monastery, Heimeran Pongraz, to be the planner, developer and the first “brown” Hofbräuhaus’ master brewer, which went into operation at the “Alter Hof” ( Old Court ) in 1592. It was called the “brown” Hofbräuhaus as only brown ale was brewed there.
When Munich’s private brewers and tavern keepers complained that not only the royal servants, but also many commoners indulged in royal Hofbräuhaus beer, King Ludwig I proved himself to be very benevolent. In 1828, he issued a decree that opened up the Hofbräuhaus to the public, marking the onset of operation of the Hofbräuhaus at Platzl as we know it today. In his "Delightful History" of the Munich Hofbräuhaus written in 1883, Johann Mayerhofer reported that thousands of Munich ’s citizens came to enjoy the freshly tapped beer. Even the king showed up for the celebration. For more interesting facts about the Hofbräuhaus, visit their website at http://www.hofbraeuhaus.de/en/index_en.html.
Life Lesson #1-Always know where your food comes from...In this case, that would be the kitchen. Unbeknownst to us, we sat as far away from it as was humanly possible. We decided to sit upstairs, where we had our choice of seats. We chose the end of one of the long tables that seat around 50 people. It was quiet, and on the opposite end of the table from a group of about 15 to 20 people. One waiter served the entire long table...notice I said one...and we were the furthest from him. We suggest you sit at the end of the table closest to the kitchen where the waiter will pass you every time he comes to serve anyone. In our case, it took forever for him to get to us.
Life Lesson #2-Know what you want in life and always have a fall back plan. It took forever for the waiter to work his way to us. We wanted to order food and drink at the same time, but the menus on the table were in German. Even though we pretty much knew what we wanted, we wanted to ask for an English menu, just in case there were some things we wanted to try that we didn't recognize in German. So we asked our waiter to bring us English menus when he took our drink order. This was another mistake, as it took him forever to get back to us with our drinks and take our food order...We should have just ordered the good old standby...Wienerschnitzel!
Life Lesson #3-Like Maya Angelou says, "When you see crazy coming...cross the street!"-We never should have sat down at our table, but we weren't paying attention to the crazy redhead running around everywhere. Remember the group of 15 to 20 people, that I said were on the kitchen end of our table? Well, they were on a tour with this pushy Russian tour guide (see the redhead above). And every five minutes or so, another group of 15 to 20 people would come in and she would call to them, hug them, and sit them down at our table between us and our waiter. And as it turned out...between us and our food. Every time our waiter tried to make it down to us, she would grab him...literally...and get him to take drink orders for these new people. At first, we thought it was a family reunion or something. Then, we realized it was a tour group, a really large tour group that ended up being about 100 people. Our waiter was trying to get to us, giving us pleading looks of understanding. He was finally able to bring us two wienerschnitzels and one roast chicken platter, but there were four of us and not three, so what gives??? Husband was waiting on his pork knuckle (a.k.a. ham schank), a traditional German dish served with potatoes. Apparently, pork knuckle is very popular with the Russians because pork knuckle platter after pork knuckle platter came out of the kitchen, and the pushy Russian tour guide grabbed the arm of our waiter and pointed to the empty placemats in front of her charges, and long story short...Husband never got his pork knuckle. That's okay, he performed his duties as the human vaccuum cleaner quite well, eating everything the kids didn't want.
Life Lesson #4-When someone steals your pork knuckle, eat wienerschnitzel!-If you are willing to be flexible, you just might find that your family of four can eat for the price of a family of three! Hasta luego...
One of my friends who lived in Germany refers to the Hofbräuhaus as a tourist trap. I suppose in many respects, it is. It is the first public tavern established in Germany, it serves great food and beer, and...pretty ladies carry around six to ten full steins at a time to your table for your drinking pleasure...Who wouldn't want to see that??? So yes, the Hofbräuhaus is a mecca for hungry and thirsty tourists from all over the world. Lest you think, it's only tourists that frequent the Hofbräuhaus, the restaurant's website lists nearly 100 regular groups, as well as the days of the week their tables are reserved. Pretty cool! As I said before, we had a great time, but our visits to the Hofbräuhaus were not without adversity. We are willing to share our experiences with you, so that you, our friends and followers, will not suffer the same sad fate of dear Husband...receiving no meal at all! **Collective sigh here**Besides being a restaurant and brew house, the Hofbräuhaus also has a museum upstairs you can walk through while you're waiting for your order. The picture above is of Seven, who is seated in front of a replica of a traditional German meal from days gone by. What??? No wienerschnitzel???? Speaking of history...here's a little history of the Hofbräuhaus from their own website....Wilhelm V, Duke of Bavaria (1579 – 1597), had a thirsty and demanding royal household, which was dissatisfied with the beer brewed in Munich. As a result, beer had to be imported to Munich from the city of Einbeck in Lower Saxony. Wilhelm ordered his royal court to come up with a way to reconcile cost and pleasure. On September 27, 1589, the chamberlains and council members, C. Strabl, A. Amasmeyr, S. Prew and G. Griesmair, approached him with an idea: why not build their own brewery? Wilhelm welcomed the plan with open arms. As a matter of fact, that same day, he recruited the master brewer of the Geisenfeld Monastery, Heimeran Pongraz, to be the planner, developer and the first “brown” Hofbräuhaus’ master brewer, which went into operation at the “Alter Hof” ( Old Court ) in 1592. It was called the “brown” Hofbräuhaus as only brown ale was brewed there.When Munich’s private brewers and tavern keepers complained that not only the royal servants, but also many commoners indulged in royal Hofbräuhaus beer, King Ludwig I proved himself to be very benevolent. In 1828, he issued a decree that opened up the Hofbräuhaus to the public, marking the onset of operation of the Hofbräuhaus at Platzl as we know it today. In his "Delightful History" of the Munich Hofbräuhaus written in 1883, Johann Mayerhofer reported that thousands of Munich ’s citizens came to enjoy the freshly tapped beer. Even the king showed up for the celebration. For more interesting facts about the Hofbräuhaus, visit their website at http://www.hofbraeuhaus.de/en/index_en.html. Life Lesson #1-Always know where your food comes from...In this case, that would be the kitchen. Unbeknownst to us, we sat as far away from it as was humanly possible. We decided to sit upstairs, where we had our choice of seats. We chose the end of one of the long tables that seat around 50 people. It was quiet, and on the opposite end of the table from a group of about 15 to 20 people. One waiter served the entire long table...notice I said one...and we were the furthest from him. We suggest you sit at the end of the table closest to the kitchen where the waiter will pass you every time he comes to serve anyone. In our case, it took forever for him to get to us.Life Lesson #2-Know what you want in life and always have a fall back plan. It took forever for the waiter to work his way to us. We wanted to order food and drink at the same time, but the menus on the table were in German. Even though we pretty much knew what we wanted, we wanted to ask for an English menu, just in case there were some things we wanted to try that we didn't recognize in German. So we asked our waiter to bring us English menus when he took our drink order. This was another mistake, as it took him forever to get back to us with our drinks and take our food order...We should have just ordered the good old standby...Wienerschnitzel!
Life Lesson #3-Like Maya Angelou says, "When you see crazy coming...cross the street!"-We never should have sat down at our table, but we weren't paying attention to the crazy redhead running around everywhere. Remember the group of 15 to 20 people, that I said were on the kitchen end of our table? Well, they were on a tour with this pushy Russian tour guide (see the redhead above). And every five minutes or so, another group of 15 to 20 people would come in and she would call to them, hug them, and sit them down at our table between us and our waiter. And as it turned out...between us and our food. Every time our waiter tried to make it down to us, she would grab him...literally...and get him to take drink orders for these new people. At first, we thought it was a family reunion or something. Then, we realized it was a tour group, a really large tour group that ended up being about 100 people. Our waiter was trying to get to us, giving us pleading looks of understanding. He was finally able to bring us two wienerschnitzels and one roast chicken platter, but there were four of us and not three, so what gives??? Husband was waiting on his pork knuckle (a.k.a. ham schank), a traditional German dish served with potatoes. Apparently, pork knuckle is very popular with the Russians because pork knuckle platter after pork knuckle platter came out of the kitchen, and the pushy Russian tour guide grabbed the arm of our waiter and pointed to the empty placemats in front of her charges, and long story short...Husband never got his pork knuckle. That's okay, he performed his duties as the human vaccuum cleaner quite well, eating everything the kids didn't want.Life Lesson #4-When someone steals your pork knuckle, eat wienerschnitzel!-If you are willing to be flexible, you just might find that your family of four can eat for the price of a family of three! Hasta luego...
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