March 4 2010 The Heidelberg

The Heidelberg Restaurant 215 N. Main St.
The Heidelberg is the next restaurant on Main Street. 50 years ago Ann Arbor had 3 major German Restaurants coinciding with Ann Arbor’s great German heritage. The Heidelberg is the only one remaining downtown.

Metzger’s used to be located on the corner of 4th and Washington where the Arena is now but has now moved out to the west side of town on Zeeb Road. The other, the Old German was also on Washington but at the corner of Ashley. It surrounded the old Del Rio in the space that is now the original Grizzly Peak. The front door of the restaurant was on Washington but if you just wanted counter service in the bar you could use the back door on Ashley and avoid the dinner lines. But, I digress.

I got to the Heidelberg about 5pm and the main dining room was almost deserted. The Heidelberg has 3 floors. The basement is the Rathskeller, traditional German bar and this was where it was hopping, a very narrow room with a bar along the south wall and tables and booths across from it. A free taco bar (in a German Restaurant?) seemed to be the big attraction. At the far end was a raised platform with a couple of dart boards. It was lively, loud and smoky.

The third floor used to have bands on the weekends but it has now been turned into a poker club. I did not check it out.

I sat at the restaurant bar until Joyce arrived. I had a German Beer. The bartender didn’t seem too happy to be there and spent much of her time on her cell phone. The Alpine room gets its name from numerous paintings of mountains and castles hung around the room. The tables are on either side of the room corralled off from the central aisle by a wooden fence. The place is all dark wood and looks like what you would think a Bavarian restaurant would look like.

When Joyce arrived we moved to one of the tables. Our server, Dan, was right there to take our order (there was only one other table eating at the time). He suggested something from the German specialty menu. I had the Sauerbraten and Joyce went with the Knockwurst. We started with the Spaetzle special and found the noodles to be a bit soggy, I didn’t think the mushrooms too authentic but the pieces of sausage adorning the top were excellent.

The Sauerbraten was excellent but Joyce found the Knockwurst which was supposed to be spicy to be a little mild. The best thing on the menu was the side of homemade applesauce. I had the apple turnover for desert made with the same applesauce and a couple of scoops of vanilla ice cream. The applesauce was better on its own.

Prices were medium range but you could get a half order of most of the German specials which made it pretty reasonable. If you like German Food and don’t want to have to wait to get it, the Heidelberg might be your spot.