Most Authentic German Restaurant: “Good Food and Beer”

There’s no science to how we select the next type of cuisine to investigate.  Either Murray happens to meet a diplomat from somewhere, and then that country becomes next on the list, or we get a request from a fan or friend.  This means that the selection of world regions so far has been pretty random, resulting (until now) in the omission of a whole continent – Europe! 

As luck would have it, Murray recently attended a reception at the German Consulate and Mission to the U.N.  When he inquired about where to find the most authentic German meal in New York City, the diplomat was hesitant to answer right away, but promised to provide “a list” after some thought.  Sure enough, the diplomat did follow up with three recommended restaurants, each with a note describing its specialty.  For our dinner last Saturday, we chose the one at the top of the list, which had the promising note, “good food and beer.” This was Zum Schneider on the Lower East Side.

We arrived at the restaurant very early, 5:30 pm, and the scene you see in the photo above is what greeted us – The outside of the restaurant was lined with tables filled with young, happy, healthy folks, drinking beer.  The inside was similar (although darker, with longer tables, and benches instead of chairs).  Lots of beer was being consumed, and I'll admit it looked like fun.  

But we had a slightly different mission.  Not that I have anything at all against beer, but – believe it or not - Neither Murray nor Ben drink beer!  What was I thinking, going to this restaurant – a biergarten – with only the two of them as company? 

With the help of the hostess, we found a spot at the end of one of the long tables, a little removed from the beer festivities, but since Zum Schneider is not a large restaurant, this really just means we weren’t sitting in the center of the place.

This is what we ate:

•  Kräuterquark, which is a soft cheese spread with herbs, and comes with a salad of lettuce, radishes and cherry tomatoes

•  Assorted Bavarian salads, which included beets, a red cabbage salad, sauerkraut, and a delicious, mustardy potato salad

• A Sausage Platter, which featured three different Bavarian sausages; wiener, weisswurst and rauchwurst, with more sauerkraut and potato salad

• One of the featured daily specials – a pork shank, served with a potato dumpling

To drink, we shared a bottle of Zum Schneider's House dry white wine, Grüner Veltliner, Berger 2008, touted on the menu as a “super sipper,” which it was.  This came in a one-liter bottle, which looked like a bottle of soda water, especially when the waitress removed the metal top.

We also had dessert (of course) – one order of Apfelkϋchle – apple fritters in beer batter with vanilla ice cream, which was much too large for one person and almost conquered even the three of us.

Meatless items are marked with asterisks on the menu, and it looks to me like a vegetarian could survive a meal here, but would probably be happier with a different national cuisine.  Unless, of course, you want to drink your dinner … If that’s the case, Zum Schneider may be the right location; the menu lists some 20 different types of beer and around 10 German and Austrian wines, but no hard liquor.

Be forewarned: Zum Schneider does not take credit cards, so remember to bring your cash.  We ended up spending about $120 for this meal, including a nice tip for our waitress … Not bad, considering we brought some of the pork shank home with us for a “snack” the next day. We gave the bone to our our dog, which made her quite happy for at least an hour or two.

 

Where and When

Zum Schneider
107 Ave C (at East 7th Street)
New York, NY 10009
(212) 598-1098

www.zumschneider.com

Monday through Thursday
5:00pm – 11:30pm

Friday
4:00pm – 11:30pm

Saturday and Sunday
1:00pm – 11:30pm

Note: The bar stays open until 4:00 am, at least on Saturday nights.