I'd had my eye on a German restaurant in the far northwest suburbs of Chicago for awhile, Bauer's Brauhaus in Palatine. I decided to go find the place a few weeks ago when I was in the area and headed over to what would be called Palatine's downtown area just off Palatine Road. When I pulled up in front of what I thought would be Bauer's Brauhaus, I found that it was now called Schnell's Brauhaus. Hmmm... OK, I was a little confused, but I still went in to give the place a try.
I was sort of intrigued by some of the things I'd read about Bauer's Brauhaus - Chef Jason Bauer had opened the restaurant in early 2012 along with his father, Bob, and his aunt and uncle, Judy and Gene Bauer. The Bauer's could trace their family lineage back to Ulm, Germany and Jason Bauer specifically wanted to offer old world German dishes in the new restaurant (which also happened to previously house a German restaurant).
Bob and Gene Bauer had worked with their father in a family-owned body shop before their father sold the business a number of years ago. The brothers decided to do something completely different and they got into the bar and grille business. Jason attended culinary school and ended up working for a time at the heralded Vie restaurant in suburban Western Springs before joining his family in their German restaurant in Palatine. His original general manager, Carl Maier, had most of his family still over in Germany.
However, I found out during research on Schnell's Brauhaus that the Bauer's unexpectedly closed their restaurant in December of last year. Two brothers - Joel and Brian Schnell, who are the owners of The Donkey Inn in Palatine - leased the building and decided to keep the place as a German restaurant. They reportedly hired an Austrian chef as a menu consultant and the restaurant reopened in early February under the name of Schnell's Brauhaus.
Schnell's Brauhaus is located on Slade Ave. in downtown Palatine in the midst of a number of restaurants in the area. (see map) The dimly lit restaurant (none of the pictures I took of the interior turned out) featured traditional German decor with a bit of modern world technology mixed in. Flat screen televisions on the walls behind the antique bar and all around the restaurant made it sort of look like a Bavarian sports bar.
I sat at the bar and was greeted by a bartender - Carly - who asked me if I needed a menu and something to drink. I ordered up a stein of Spaten while I looked through the menu to see what they offered.
Quite actually, the menu was very disappointing. I expected more choices of German food, but most of the menu consisted of appetizers, burgers and sandwiches. The only "true" German items on the menu were a sausage platter that they designated as their "specialty", beef goulash, and pork, veal or chicken schnitzel dishes (with or without a fried egg on top). And that was it. I sort of did a mental "eenie-meenie-minie-moe" between the wiener schnitzel and the beef goulash before I decided to order up the goulash.
As I was waiting for my food to come, the rather quite and laid-back atmosphere of the place was tremendously disrupted as a party of about 8 or 9 people came in and took over the end of the bar. From their loud and boisterous conversations, it appeared that all of them were back home for the funeral of a friend and were rather inebriated by this time of the evening. I'm sure they were having fun, but I wanted something a little more quiet this particular evening.
Not long after I ordered, Carly brought my beef goulash to me. This was a little different from any goulash I've been served in previous visits to German restaurants - the braised beef tips were served with the spatzle on the side and not as a bed for the beef and the sauce.
The beef tips were large and were cut-able with a fork - barely. They were overcooked and dry in taste on their own. The spatzle, too, seemed to be overcooked and rubbery in their composition. The only redeeming factor in the whole meal was the gravy sauce - it had a great complexity of tastes and helped with the overall taste of what was pretty disappointing beef tips and spatzle.
I guess I was expecting a lot more out of a place that called themselves a German restaurant. While Carly's service was nice, and the atmosphere was relaxed (save for the boisterous group that came in), both the quality of the food and the lack of more choices of German food on the menu were lacking. Schnell's Brauhaus is more of a sports bar and grill than a true German restaurant.
Comments