May 8, 2015
There is a place on Stone Street in the Financial District of Manhattan called Bavaria Bierhaus, complete with wooden benches and girls dressed in lederhosen. In case you haven’t been to Stone Street during happy hour on a beautiful spring day, it’s PACKED with Wallstreet kids decked in suits just getting off a brutal number-crunching day. Every single place on Stone Street was crowded with a waiting list just to get sat – except for Bavaria.
My friend and I were sat immediately and given both a food and drink menu. I realized I couldn’t go to a bier haus and not order a Hefeweizen – one of my favorite beers to drink on a hot day.
The entire interiror reminded me of the Germany pavilion at Disney’s Epcot, except for the music. Instead of traditional German folk music, they were playing a Spotify playlist most likely titled “90’s R&B.” Didn’t really go with the atmosphere, but hey – who doesn’t want to listen to Dru Hill or Naughty By Nature while they eat dinner?
As you can see, it was one helluva pretzel, served with spicy mustard and cheese sauce. It was a good appetizer, and I really liked it (the cheese sauce helped) but I found the pretzel to be way too salty for me to completely enjoy and finish.
By the time I was starting to get hungry again, my cheeseburger was delivered – without the side of mayonnaise I requested. It took me almost ten minutes to track down someone to bring the mayo, resulting me in getting up from the table and standing by the kitchen door to ask the next worker I saw. Sometimes ya just really need some mayo, ya know what I mean?
Originally, I had wanted to check out the restaurant across the street from Bavaria because I heard they had amazing cheeseburgers and all day long, that’s exactly what I was craving. I looked at the menu and saw they had a cheeseburger listed, but I thought to myself “I’m at a German restaurant, I can’t order a cheeseburger!” But then “No Diggity” came on the radio, so I decided I didn’t have to follow German norms.
While placing my cheeseburger order, I noticed they had authentic German Pretzels on the menu as an appetizer, so I got one – specifically for the Instagram picture.
The burger was good – as any burger can be. Nothing special to it at all. I ate it, mostly because I was so hungry, but the patty was pretty thin and was not cooked medium rare. But again, it was a cheeseburger from a German bier haus. I should have just gotten a bratwurst or something…
Maybe it was the items I selected, or maybe it was the music selection, but I was really not a big fan of this place. I am sure that coming here on a weekend over the summer with some friends, enjoying a few beers outside on the patio would be nice, but I wouldn’t recommend eating anything off of the menu.