Germany calling

Related tags Sausage

London's first Bavarian Beerhouse has flown in a German chef and, reports HUMAYUN HUSSAIN, buys its meat from Munich

When German-born Rene von Reth and Sabine Schlodder, co-owners of the Bavarian Beerhouse, launched their venture late last year on London's City Road, it was the realisation of a dream.

For Rene in particular, having lived and travelled abroad as a business consultant and seen Bavarian-style beerhouses in several countries, it was a long-cherished wish to see one spring up in London.

After forming a partnership with Sabine, whose background is in public relations, the pair set about devising a concept that would emulate the best of Munich's renowned beerhouse, the Hofbräuhaus.

They decided to create a large canteen-like main room with long wooden tables and benches. The waitresses would wear dirndls, and serve some of Bavaria's finest beers in pint glasses and one-litre steins (Bavarian tankards) and the menu would feature authentic Bavarian food, such as schnitzel (pork escalope) and weisswurst (Bavarian white sausage).

Open in time for Christmas

Once the 7,000sq ft basement site, formerly a wine bar, was secured, Rene and Sabine opened the beerhouse almost immediately with just a cosmetic makeover of the interior. A soft launch in December was designed to cash in on the Christmas period then the place was shut down for almost two weeks in early January and, after a brief renovation, it was re-opened.

"Right from the beginning we were adamant that we were not going to compromise on any aspect," says Sabine. "We wanted to open a beerhouse that would be as authentic as possible. The main room has tables and benches which seat 10 people per table. The second room is where we have a giant TV screen showing German football.In the third we are going to have an internal beer garden where we will have garden furniture imported from Germany, while we will be converting the fourth into an all-wood ski hut in the coming months."

There are 11 starters on the menu (priced from £1.50 to £9.90), eight mains (£6.50 to £12.90) and three desserts (all £3.50). With the kitchen overseen by chef Ludwig Wilson, who was brought over from Germany, the cooking puts the emphasis on traditional Bavarian food with large-sized portions. From meat loaf to schnitzel and a range of sausages such as bratwurst and knockwurst, it's not surprising that meat-based dishes feature heavily, although there are some vegetarian options. All the meat is delivered from Munich every 10 days while the other ingredients are sourced weekly from a German wholesaler.

The most popular dishes are the signature

wurstplatte (a plate of four types of sausage) and munchener schweinebraten (roast pork in a dark beer sauce, served with red cabbage and potato dumplings).

London's only Bavarian food

"When it came to the menu," says Sabine, "we had done our research of the pub food served in the UK. We concluded that the trend is very much towards a modern British menu which seems to encompass dishes from across the world."

She adds: "We felt that as we were only going to concentrate on serving Bavarian cooking, we had an edge because we would be providing food that no one else has, particularly in our choice of sausage meat."

The beer list currently features eight of Germany's most popular beers, including Erdinger, the leading wheat beer, malty Kuppers Kolsch, the hoppy Paulaner - including the Paulaner Salvator variant with a strong 7.5% alcohol strength - and the dark and fruity Hofbräuhaus.

Prices range from £2.20 to £6.90 for a one-litre stein and so far the most popular beers have been the Erdinger and Paulaner.

The "Bavarian Beer Experience" gives customers the option to try three beers for £10 and, for £32.50, a whole keg - the "Paulaner Mini Keg" - is brought over to the table.

Wines have been kept to a minimum of four with the focus on Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon. There are also a similar number of Schnaps being served - ranging from Jagermeister to Apfelkorn - with one of them changing monthly. "We've selected the beers that are the most visible in Germany," says Sabine, "but we can never hope to get the kind of range here that's offered over there because there are so many independent breweries in Germany. But many of our customers have not had these beers before and in the next few months we will broaden our range. So far the customer reaction has been very positive."

Facts and figures

Covers per week: 2,000

Turnover: £800,000 to £1m (projected)

Average food spend per head: £12-£15

Wet:dry split: 65:35

Beers: eight (all on draught) including Erdinger, Paulaner and Hofbräuhaus

Wine list: 2 whites, 2 reds and 1 sparkling

Best business idea since opening: "The two main ideas we had have also turned out to be our most popular. The first is the "Oktoberfest", which we have every Friday and Saturday night. We keep the same food and drink offer but bring in a DJ who plays dance music, so the concept is to have a party atmosphere with lots of dancing and beer flowing. The other idea we had was to show all the German international sport events on TV, including the forthcoming 2006 World Cup matches. We also show all the German football league matches. The response from our customers has been phenomenal.

The room gets packed out and we usually

have to turn people away."

On the menu

Starters

Leberknödelsuppe

Traditional liver dumpling soup £4.50

Wiener Würstl

Two frankfurters served with home-made potato salad £4.90

Brotzeitteller

Cold-cut platter of roast pork, Black Forest ham, sausages, cheese & gherkins £6.50

Main courses

Leberkaze