#49 Brauhaus Schmitz - Sam's synopsis

I had been to Brauhaus Schmitz once before - it was for German-themed quizzo and I went with a group of Germans, so obviously I contributed nothing but we still won by a landslide. I have also been to Germany, although only for ~48 hours and most of it was spent at a lovely wedding. I did get some currywurst and drank German beer though, so I suppose I have something to base my opinion on.

meow!

I hate that Philadelphia does not have great public transportation, so instead of waiting for a bus that was supposed to come 15 minutes earlier, we took the trolley to the Market-Frankford line and walked from Market to South. This did, however, lead to two cat spottings, so we'll consider it a win.

The layout of Brauhaus is very narrow and very long - I was surprised that there was an additional, large room in the back by the bathrooms. Despite that, we were sat near the front of the restaurant near a table of 20ish people who proceeded to get progressively more and more drunk as the night went on. Not that I disagree with those actions, but 20 drunk people can be pretty loud. This made it pretty hard to hear the waiter and each other, so there were a couple of misheard orders. But the waitstaff accommodated these pretty well, so no complaints there. The inside has a lot of neat old-fashioned posters, and other Germany-esque decorations. I imagine a lot of people go there to watch football. 

For a beer, I ordered the Trunator Vollmon-Bock from Hofbräuhaus Traunstein (THANK YOU UNTAPPD. Guys, if you like beer, seriously use this app [and friend me - lobsterthecat] because it's a great way to keep track of everything you've tried and what you like). I gave it 4 stars, so I definitely enjoyed it - nice doppelbock with lots of flavor. Very different from the beer I had in Germany, which was a hefeweizen, so can't compare too much there.

obatzda

We started with a few appetizers - a meat board, a cheese spread (obatzda) pickled sausages, and Erin ordered a delicious pretzel. The meat board consisted of very thinly cut slices of mostly ham, although there was one beef one. I have to say, I am not a big fan of beef (re: I never eat it), but I did inadvertently have a piece and thought it was good. My favorite was the slice of ham that had pistachios in it, although they were all pretty tasty. If you're a meat connoisseur (that sounds like a fancy name for something dirty... hehehe...), I'd recommend it, but I don't usually go for thinly sliced meat as an appetizer (AMIRITE?!) so I probably wouldn't order it again unless someone else wanted to sample it. The cheese spread had delicious brie and paprika in it, and I would definitely order it again. I did not try the pickled sausages but I think people had mixed feelings about them. The pretzel was of course delicious, and you kind of have to order one at a place called Brauhaus Schmitz. Also, the bread for the table was amazing. I love it when places give you bread for "free."

I believe everyone at the table ordered sausage, so it was a sausage party. Yeah, there are a lot of terrible jokes that can go with this one. You kind of have to roll with it at this point. I ordered the speckwurst (bacon and black pepper) and the nürnberger bratwurst (pork, marjoram, mace, caraway, ginger). I was disappointed to not see currywurst on the menu, but apparently it's on their bar menu and/or I missed it. So I will definitely have to go back and try it in the future. The two sausages I got were both delicious - speck was on the saltier side, and the nürnberger one you could really taste the different spices, leading to a nice subtle sweet flavor. As my sides I got spätzle (egg dumplings) and a potato pancake. The potato pancake was heavenly - crispy and flavor perfection. I am actually salivating a little bit right now just thinking about it. The spätzle was fine, I enjoyed the chive seasoning, but I'd get something different the next time to try out the other sides.

Finally, despite being totally full, we of course ordered dessert. I got black forest cake, and it was beautiful - I haven't seen a cake that perfectly layered in a long time. It was also very tasty, although I don't tend to like big chunks of fruit in desserts so I sort of picked around some of the cherries in there. But it wasn't overly sweet and the chocolate was definitely high quality. YUM.

All in all, it was a great evening spent with friends - we ended up staying for a solid 2.5-3 hours there chatting and enjoying ourselves. The food and drinks were great, and despite the loudness and too-high A.C., I definitely want to make a return trip to Brauhaus Schmitz.

Brauhaus Schmitz
718 South Street
Philadelphia, PA
(267) 909-8814