Essen!

A couple of weekends ago I drove down to Windham to visit a friend of mine. Talline has health problems and doesn't get out much, so I thought I'd take her to lunch at a restaurant I'd been hearing about on my favorite radio station, WBAC. Located on Main Street in the town of Brunswick, the restaurant, called Richard's, features German food. Since Talline is about all things German the way I am about things French, I thought she would get a kick out it.

It's a pleasant, attractive place, rather dim inside, with the regulation beer steins all around the wall, some of them so large you can't believe people ever actually drank beer from them. I can't get terribly excited about all the wursts German food tends to emphasize (bratwurst, knockwurst, bauernwurst), so I had the Rheinischer Sauerbraten (German pot roast), which was quite good, although the accompanying small, German dumplings were a bit disappointing. They were flavorful, but a little dry, really cried out for a sauce, gravy or soup.

My friend ordered Wiener Schnitzel, but whether because the waitress didn't hear correctly, or because the other dish was slightly more expensive and she thought we wouldn't notice, she wrote Jager Schnitzel on her pad, and that's what Talline got. Apparently the only real difference is the mushroom and wine sauce that comes with the latter dish. At any rate, my friend found what was on her plate delicious, and it wasn't until I got hold of a menu, after receiving the bill and thinking that what we had been charged for Talline's dish was too much, that she realized it wasn't what she'd ordered! Both Weiner Schnitzel and Jager Schnitzel are traditionally made from veal, but are sometimes made with pork loin, which was the case here, which Talline also hadn't realized. I didn't make a stink about the wrong item having been written down and served up, since Talline had enjoyed what she got, and had not reared back at her first bite and exclaimed, hey, this isn't what I wanted!

Although I most often drink water with meals taken out, unless it's dinner, and I'm with friends, in which case I might have a glass of wine, I felt that since I was in a German restaurant, I really should have a German beer. Richard's has quite a selection, but everything on draft and most of the bottled beers were my idea of expensive – especially since I'm not really a big beer drinker – so I finally settled on a relatively cheap bottle of St. Pauli Girl dark (with beer I have found I generally prefer dark to light). It proved to be quite good, so now I know what I can safely, happily order, any time ordering beer is in order.

The bar is tucked away in the back off the main dining room, and you pass by it on your way down the little corridor to the restrooms. As I was making my way to the latter, I heard a familiar voice, the very voice that had encouraged me to come to "Richard's Restaurant" so many times on the radio. All those times I'd heard those ads I'd thought the fellow reading the copy sounded like a movie Nazi ("You vill eat your Veener Sneezle!"), and was sure he was not for real. But apparently he was! I poked my head around the partition and said, "Excuse me for interrupting, but you must be Richard." He smiled and nodded. "You sound just like you do on the radio," I said, "And you're the reason we're here today." Never hurts to let them know when their advertising is working. Richard seemed pleased.