Featured Restaurant: Chalet Alpina

GutterGourmet — March 12, 2010

Clockwise from top: Potato Pancake with Sour Cream and Apple Sauce, the Bavarian Platter, Pints of Spaten, and the Chalet Alpina coat of arms.

Metropolitan Avenue near Woodhaven Blvd and Forest Hills Gardens was once home to a large German immigrant population in the mid-50’s and 60’s. Chalet Alpina caters to the original, now elderly, residents, and those pining for a taste of Bavaria. As you walk in, an older German woman plays the accordion, flashing you back to those sixth grade auditions for “The Sound of Music.”

More Photographs of Food at Chalet Alpina >>

Featured Dish: Berliner Brat Burger

GutterGourmet — February 08, 2010

Clockwise from top: Berliner Brat Burger, Freakin Deal, and a Bratwurst.

Rolf Babiel has been missed since he passed last October, but thankfully, his brother Wolfgang carries on the Hallo Berlin cart tradition. I spent many a day on the corner of Fifth and 54th, waiting for my order to be ready— one of the great combination specials, often the ‘Dr. Atkins,’ or the ‘Churchill.’ Then there’s the ‘Freakin Deal,’ a wurst with onions, potato salad, and a warm crusty roll— a freakin’ deal indeed for $4.00. I loved to eat from an overflowing paper tray at one of the little folding counters on either side of the cart while watching Rolf slice the wursts and throw fresh ones on the grill.

But it’s a little cold for standing around outside, so lately I’ve taken to visiting Hallo Berlin Express on 9th Ave and 50th St. It has given me occasion to enjoy a sandwich that has not been given enough attention— the Triple B.

The Berliner Brat Burger is served on toasted bread with horseradish mustard and a pickle ($5.00). As the name suggests, it’s actually not so much a burger, as it is a salty, porky sausage in burger form. The one problem you encounter is that the bread doesn’t hold up to the juicy patty and its other toppings: rotwein, sauerkraut, and sautéed onions. But that won’t matter much when you down it while quaffing one of the German drafts they have on hand.

AlwaysInformed: Wechsler’s Leberkäse

GutterGourmet and Arthur Bovino — January 06, 2010

Wechsler’s Leberkäse.

Want exciting sausages in the East Village? Try Wechsler’s on 1st Ave and 7th. Their signature dish is the well-documented currywurst. Even if you don’t love the taste (what’s wrong with you?) currywurst deserves your respect. After all, how many dishes have museums? But there’s another cultural food landmark from Germany at Wechsler’s that hasn’t gotten much attention: Leberkäse.

Click Here for Beautiful Pictures of Wechsler's Currywurst >>

Featured Restaurant: Radegast Hall & Biergarten

Arthur Bovino — August 24, 2009

Kas Spatzle with Hunter’s Bacon and Brown Cabbage.

A beer garden in Williamsburg could easily be kitschy or precious, but Radegast Hall & Biergarten is neither. Instead, it’s a warm, welcoming space on North 3rd and Berry, that rapidly changing neighborhood between Main Street Williamsburg (Bedford Avenue) and the new waterfront condos.

Stepping inside the warehouse (a project by Slovakian-born partners, Ivan Kohut and Andy Ivanov) is like entering the idea of the beer garden you always had in your mind. The dimly-lit, open-beamed, high ceiling space is filled with wood, booths and a large bar. A second, brick-walled area is filled with picnic tables. You look around half-expecting to see people singing and smashing steins together.

There are twelve beers on draft, mostly German (two Belgian, one Czech) which you can order by pint ($7), liter ($13) or pitcher ($18), and more than 40 bottled beers (23 Belgian, 18 German, one Swedish, one Czech). You’ll find Kriek, Blonde, Pilsener and Lager, Cider, Lambec and gluten-free beer. The great thing about Radegast, besides its atmosphere, the beer, occasional live music and communal ambience is that the food here isn’t an afterthought— it’s quality pub fare prepared by Ivan’s wife, Joanna Kohut.

As at Astoria’s authentic Bohemian Hall and Beer Garden, there is rib-sticking Eastern European fare. Take for example, Goulash, Schnitzel and the crusty-delicious Halusky (known by its German name, Spatzle). Quality smaller plates include the Chicken and Rabbit Liver Pâté and the unmixed Steak Tartare. Also on the menu, is one of New York City’s better soft pretzels.

For those people who enjoy Bohemian Hall and Biergarden for the feeling it gives you of getting out of New York and entering another culture, Radegast is not a substitute. But with Williamsburg’s continued new construction and the increased inhabiting of completed projects, the scruffy, black-rimmed glasses wearing natives and the now-clichéd hipster-haters are going to find themselves in increasing interaction (especially on the L), Radegast Hall & Biergarten is a great setting for them to learn to live together. It’s the kind of place that makes you wonder how the neighborhood survived without it for so long.

See new pictures of food at Radegast Hall & Biergarten on its restaurant page here.