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Home - Dish
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Prost!
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Cheers to Bellevue’s
Zum Biergarten
by Lainey Seyler
I dragged my Austrian friend Simon Schoepf to Bellevue to test the authenticity of Zum Biergarten — a German restaurant co-owned by Otto Helbig — and to satisfy his craving for schnitzel.
The practically trademark German dish sounds exotic, though it’s really a tenderized pork loin, lightly breaded and crisply fried. Schnitzel, bratwurst and “side” items like spaetzle and sauerkraut slide easily into stride with the American palate, which is to say deep-fried, salty and slathered in gravy. American items with continental influence round out Helbig’s menu.
“We try to accommodate everybody. We do steaks, chicken, vegetarian, couple vegan dishes,” Helbig, a native of Rhineland-Pfalz, Germany, spoke like a true American.
Helbig is from the town of Bad Duerkheim and attended culinary school in Germany. He worked at restaurants and hotels in Europe before coming to the U.S. where he worked as a chef at Edelweiss (among other restaurants), owned by his sister and brother-in-law.
Zum Biergarten is Helbig’s enterprise and opened last October. The restaurant’s interior is 100 percent kitsch, and the ambience is deepened by umpah-pahing German music, the sort of cheesy atmosphere encouraged among touristy European restaurants. To my surprise, Schoepf loved the music and not with ironic, sarcastic admiration. He laughed saying, “This is great. If I translated this for you, it would be about people falling in love in the mountains. Just great.”
The restaurant has just enough culture to satisfy curious and hungry patrons for a couple hours. The American hamburger (which did not originate in Hamburg, Germany) served (obviously) on a Kaiser roll makes up a segment of the menu, as do steaks, chicken entrees (some with German influence) and fish dishes such as shrimp pasta and grilled salmon.
Pork is where the menu goes native. Zum Biergarten offers six variations on the schnitzel, including a not-so-German but still clever Hawaiian schnitzel topped with pineapple and Swiss cheese. I tried the Zigeuner (gypsy) schnitzel, which featured the typical breaded pork loin with mildly spicy paprika gravy and bell peppers. Schoepf chose the jaeger schnitzel, a hearty version he told me is usually served to hunters (called Jaeger in German) before they head out for the day. It came with a heavy portion of brown mushroom gravy. Both gravies were savory though not spectacular, and less is more. I preferred the Zigeuner for its spiciness. The prices were fair, with the sandwiches around $10, the schnitzels around $12.
For a side, we both ordered spaetzle, Germany’s version of pasta made from flour and milk (instead of water in Italy). It was reminiscent in texture to gnocchi though smaller with a pleasurable creaminess. Other sides available include rice, potatoes, fries, cream cabbage, sauerkraut, red cabbage and semmel knoedel (a dumpling).
The house salad comes with most entrees and includes a spot of potatoes, crisp-fresh lettuce, what I suspect to be canned green beans and grated carrots all tossed in a nicely tangy vinaigrette made in-house.
Seeing as Helbig dubbed his restaurant Zum Biergarten, it goes without saying he imports beer. While customers can order Bud Light, Helbig boasts a nice selection of darks, wheats, lagers and pilsners. Schoepf was disappointed when our Frankiskaner weisbeir came with a glass that was too small to hold the entire beer and with the wrong curvature to accentuate the wheat brew’s citrus notes. Being the ignorant American I am, I enjoyed it anyway.
Zum Biergarten, at 513 Fork Crook Rd. North, is open Tues., Wed. and Sun. 11 a.m.-8 p.m., Thurs. 11 a.m.-9 p.m. and Fri.-Sat. 11 a.m.-9:30 p.m. For more information, visit zumbiergarten.com or call 733.1900.
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