Well, this I guess is kind of a tough subject. I am no expert in the field. My Dad's side was Swedish, my Mom's German, and I really don't feel attracted to either cuisine. I like Mexican and Italian, and French. Middle Eastern and a little Indian.
It seems to me that German is pretty heavy overall, and I just have not ever been big on sausages, even the desserts seem really dense to me. I think too that many people in this country don't like German wines, which in my view have usually been too sweet. German beers are a different story... But I don't even like beer. I think the Swedish side kicks in there, I like vodka, cold climate beverage.
Now, as far as German restaurants go in LA, we had a place between Downtown and Hollywood, called Loewenbrau, that was there for decades. I went there a couple of times, once with a chef friend, and once with my (German American) girlfriend and her family. Really strange decoration in there, and a VERY funky handmade menu. They just died last year. Really tired old servers. The place was on its last legs. Not far from there, there is a place called the Red Lion. Also been there for decades. This is a whole different scene, they do serve food, but it's mostly sausages and potato pancakes, booze and karaoke and hipsters. Live music. Now, beyond downtown, there's a really wacky place directly south about oh, 17 miles, in Torrance, called Alpine Village, acres and acres of German kookiness. Gift shops, communal dining, bad German food cooked no doubt by Mexicans, your worst nightmare. Grandparents and grade school kids. Got it?
As for Texas, well, it's too bad that there was a place located UNDERGROUND in downtown Dallas called the Blue Door that just closed recently. Had been a German place since God knows when, maybe the turn of the LAST century. Was supposed to be really fine dining for the execs in Dallas.
Uh, I have not been, but I know that in New Braunfels, TX, there has been a longtime, since the 1800s, German presence. Probably there are some good restaurants and breweries there.
Now, it's a little off topic, but north of Los Angeles, toward Santa Barbara, there's a town called Solvang, with a big Scandanavian presence, and there are numerous restaurants there with all the stuff you might want, the breakfast dishes, the meatballs, all that famous stuff, and that town is pretty serious about it, what they are doing is pretty true to form, it's not as junky, touristy as you might expect. Nice little small town atmosphere.
Well, that's all I know about!
-Scott Lindgren
scottlindgren@netzero.net
