zum Deutschen Haus

The name gastropub may be new, but the idea is old. In Freiburg, some small restaurants operate like gastropubs, i.e., serving beer or wine and local food. They proffer no multi-course meals on their menu but simple, down-to-earth dishes.

One of the most original places in Freiburg is the restaurant zum Deutschen Haus on Schusterstraße. The place was already mentioned in a document of 1386 as the house of Zum Spihlhof. Bakers are known to have owned the premises for several hundred years until, in 1779, it became a pub when Bäckermeister Wilhelm Baumeister not only made fine pastries but served them together with a Viertele of wine to his neighboring craftsmen.

Luckily, the zum Deutschen Haus is not yet a tourist attraction. Instead, connoisseurs sit in front of the gastropub and enjoy the best tapped Pils beer in town:

Some gentlemen sitting in front and enjoying their Pils beer.
The Coke bottle is a flaw of somebody who did not want to be photographed.
Note the menu written on the blackboards
and the coats of arms of Freiburg's various rulers painted on the wall:
Austria (the Habsburgs), France (Louis XIV), and Baden (decided by Napoleon)

As for the menu, you'd better sit inside:

The traditional interior (©zum Deutschen Haus)

The chanterelle season is in full swing, and Elisabeth and I enjoyed chanterelles à la crème and Semmelknödel (bread dumplings) yesterday; we had Ganter Pils. What else?

Chanterelles à la crème and Semmelknödel served traditionally in a soup bowl with a spoon.
 Simply delicious.

On top of the delicious meal, we enjoyed the Italian ambiance with a fantastic view through the open window of one of the cock towers (Hahnentürme) of the Münster church in the blazing midday sun.

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