The Gourmet's Guide to Europe Part 12

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-cla.s.s 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'hote_ 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 Klosterga.s.se is a curious, low-ceilinged, old-fas.h.i.+oned 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 n.o.ble calling. The _carte de jour_ has not many dishes on it. Everything has to be ordered _a 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 Soufflees_ 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 Pa.s.sage, 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 Cafe de Paris, Monte Carlo.

Another American bar where food is obtainable is in the Grand Monarque Hotel.

The Alt-Bayern in Wirischsbongardstra.s.se 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 Ca.n.a.l--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 const.i.tutes as pleasant a waterway as one can desire.

The hotels and restaurants are neither numerous nor _recherche_, 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 battles.h.i.+ps, 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 Hotel Germania has a very fair restaurant attached to it.

The Rathskeller is well-conducted, and was built by the munic.i.p.al 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 princ.i.p.al article of commerce.

At the Munchener Burgerbrau 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 _habitue_ 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 bas.e.m.e.nts of the houses near the Alster and Bourse at Hamburg. Their function is to provide luncheons, dinners, or suppers, and their chief _specialites_ are oysters, lobsters, other sh.e.l.l-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 a la Stuart.

Potage creme d'orge a la Viennoise.

Potage puree de concombres au cerfeuil.

Consomme Xavier.

Filets von Seezungen (soles) a la Joinville.

Steinb.u.t.t (turbot) sauce moscovite.

Rheinlachs kalt, sauce mayonnaise.

Boeuf braise a l'alsacienne.

Rehbrucken (venison) a la Conti.

Lammviertel a la Provencale.

Roast-beef a la Clamart.

Artischoken sauce hollandaise.

Salat braisirt mit jungen Erbsen.

Engl. Sellerie mit Mark.

Junge Flageolets a la Maitre.

Spanishe Pfefferschoten farcirt.

Junge Ente (duckling).

Rebhuhn (partridge).

Junge Puter.

Escarolle-Salat mit Tomaten.

Erdbeer-Eiscreme panache Fruchttorte.

Kase.

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 Perigord a la | Savarin.

| ----- 1876 _Geisenheimer | Saiblinge aus dem Konigssee.

Hothenberg-Auslese._ | Bayrische Sauce.

| ----- 1889 _Chat. Dauzac | Engl. Hammebrucken Labarde (Tischwein)._ | a la Courdomage.

| ----- 1878 _Chat. Marquis | Cotelettes de Maca.s.sins de Therme._ | a la Montalembert.