Old Heidelberg—

Authentic German Cuisine Stakes A Claim In Stony Hill

By Kaaren Valenta

From its extensive beer and wine collection to its true German cuisine and mostly German-speaking wait staff, the Old Heidelberg restaurant is about as close as you can get in New England to an authentic German restaurant and Bavarian beer garden.

That suits Volker Klemm just fine.

Mr Klemm bought Helga’s German-American restaurant in the Stony Hill section of Bethel last March and immediately set to work, revamping the menu, redecorating the interior, and expanding the bierliste and the weinliste to include more than German beers and nearly two dozen Rieslings from the country’s finest vineyards.

When he reopened the restaurant on May 4, on his 36th birthday, he had a good start on the concept that he envisioned, to recreate a bit of Germany in his new homeland.

 “I have local German beers that you can’t get anywhere else. I have 33 of them,” he said. “And I changed the menu — I made it all German.”

There is, for example, the traditional weiner schnitzel (lean, boneless veal dipped in fresh egg-wash, covered with bread crumbs and pan-fried to golden perfection) with spaetzle and red cabbage ($19), and variations like jaegerschnitzel (with mushroom and brown gravy), Rahmschnitzel (with brown gravy that has extra cream), and holsteiner schnitzel (with a fried egg on top).

Wurstplatte ($15) offers a choice of bratwurst, weisswurst, krainer wurst, chicken bratwurst, or weiner wurst, served with mashed potatoes and sauerkraut.

Traditional German entrees, all $19, include sauerbraten (marinated beef in burgundy, raspberry vinegar and spices); rouladen (thinly sliced top round roll stuffed with imported Westphalian ham, pickles, diced shallots and mustard); schweinebraten (Bavarian pork roast); gulasch (slow cooked diced beef stew), each served with spaetzle and red cabbage.

Huenerbrust mit paprika-rahm is boneless chicken breast in a paprika cream sauce, $17, while Krainerwurst krakauer-art features Krainer sausage with tomato cream sauce and fresh basil over egg pasta, $16. Etwas besounderes (something special) is an extra crisp, whole shoulder of pork baked to perfection and served with homemade bread, mashed potatoes, and sauerkraut ($25 per person — and must be ordered three days in advance).

There is a selection of German salads, and a daily soup special; on a recent day it was summer squash zucchini cream soup made from fresh produce picked by Volker Klemm’s son, Tobias, who is almost 3, on an outing with Volker’s wife, Dunja.

Volker Klemm has loved cooking since he was a child, growing up on a farm in Heddesheim, near Heidelberg. As a member of a fundraising German hiking club, he helped prepare food for the thousands of people who attended street fairs, and worked during the summers in a golf club restaurant and a soccer club restaurant. He did a three-year apprenticeship with a pharmaceutical company to become a technical mechanic and worked as a consultant before enrolling at the University of Wiesbarden’s Ruesselsheim campus to earn a degree in mechanical engineering.

“I cooked for myself in college and started to experiment with wine and other typically German ingredients, preparing different sauces,” he said. “I always found myself cooking.”

Six years ago his life changed when he was in an airport in Germany and happened to meet an attractive young woman who had returned to Germany from New York to visit her twin sister.  “I went straight to the ticket counter and got a flight to Newark [NJ], because it was cheaper [than New York],” he said.

In the following years he made the trip between Germany and the United States countless times to visit Dunja. “I became a frequent flier and paid a lot of air captain’s salaries,” he said.

Finally he got a green card that enabled him to live and work in the United States, but he could not find a job as an engineer so he started catering.

“We also entertained a lot and everyone said I should open a restaurant,” he said. “I have a huge garden at my house in Easton, and my next door neighbor would watch me gardening and come to his side of the fence to talk. He kept talking about a German restaurant in Bethel. He mentioned it so many times, asking if we had tried it, that I finally decided we had to go.”

After he visited the restaurant, Mr Klemm talked to owner Helga Roth and offered to buy it from her.

“She listened but did not say yes or no,” he said. “A few months later she called me and offered to sell.”

He quickly put together a financial plan and began to seek funding.

“Banks said restaurants are a high-risk business and because I had only worked in Germany, they weren’t interested. Many banks sent me away,” he said. “But Newtown Savings Bank came through for me. [Branch manager] Nancy Adams was great. I really tried hard to show them I am serious. Of course, it helped that there is no other German restaurant around. It would have been different if it was another pizzeria.”

With the restaurant, Volker Klemm inherited a chef, Uwe Moeller, who began his career cooking in his family’s restaurant in Germany. Mr Moeller came to the United States in 1968 and, after working for several years in restaurants in lower Fairfield County, came to Newtown to work at the Yankee Drover Inn. Several years later, he moved to the Hawley Manor Inn and was there for 20 years.

“I went back to Germany in 1994 to see my family and when I came back, the Hawley Manor was closed — locked up,” he said. “I not only lost my job but also my home because I lived there.”

So he put an ad in a newspaper, offering his services as a European chef. It was right at the time that Helga Roth was opening her restaurant. “I’ve been here ever since,” he said. “I’ve been cooking for 45 years. I still love every minute of it.”

Mr Klemm said the reaction by his customers to the changes at the restaurant have been very positive.

“I use all fresh, top-quality vegetables, fruit, and meat and also authentic German ingredients that you can’t find here,” he said. “Every 10 to 14 days I send my parents to a German wholesale club where they get the ingredients and ship them to me.”

“We have a very high-turn around, so everything is fresh, not overcooked. Uwe gets compliments every night,” he said.

The Old Heidelberg has three dining rooms that seat 62 plus outside dining for another 40 (original beer garden tables and chairs are on order from Munich to replace the plastic benches outside). There is a children’s menu.  There is live music every Saturday beginning at 5 pm. Happy Hour, from 3 to 6 pm, Tuesday through Saturday, includes a beer and bratwurst special for $5.

The wine list includes more than 20 rieslings including Baron zu Knyphausen Kiedricher Sandgrub  2001, a world-class Riesling from Dujna Klemm’s hometown, Kiedrich, Rheingau. During her teens, she harvested grapes at the Sandgrub vineyard, learning everything about reislings and became an official wine princess, her husband said.

“I price this wine at under $30 instead of the $80–$100 you find at other restaurants,” he added.

The restaurant at 55 Stony Hill Road (Route 6) is open Tuesday through Saturday from 11 am to 9 pm, and Sundays from 4 to 9 pm. Closed Mondays. Major credit cards are accepted. There is catering on and off-site, for parties of all sizes, including Octoberfests. An Octoberfest will be held on the restaurant grounds, September 24–26. Wine tastings are planned. For more information, call 797-1860 or check the website at www.RestaurantHeidelberg.com.