Buffalo is not a new city. In fact, it’s so old that they have a place called Ulrich’s 1868 Tavern. The 1868 means it first opened in 1868, you know, three years after the Civil War concluded and the first year of the Meiji Restoration. So the place is old, and despite some recent renovations, Ulrich’s definitely maintains the old world charm that makes it easy to picture old shipmen in the 1800s hanging out with Buffalo wenches.

Despite the apparent misgivings of my waitress, I decided to have one of their specials for dinner. It was called the Holstein Schnitzel and was basically a variation on their regular weinerschnitzel with a fried egg on top. I picked chicken over veal and while the menu said it came with potatoes, I decided to get an additional side of mac and cheese because it was supposed to be damn good.

Unfortunately, when the schnitzel came out, it appeared to be the veal variety and also had a bunch of sauerkraut. These were both disappointing and although I told the waitress it was the wrong meat, she seemed confused and I just decided to go with it. Unfortunately the kraut juices effectively destroyed the potatoes, but the schnitzel survived for the most part and was pretty good despite being the wrong meat. The egg was perfect and runny, but could not make up for the kraut.

The mac was just as delicious as billed, though. It was perfectly creamy and the noodles were cooked perfectly. If I were to go back to Ulrich’s, I would just load up on mac and cheese. I can’t imagine anything better on the menu and very few things go better with beer in a tavern 146 years young.

Sausages are all the rage these days, and why shouldn’t they be? Who can turn down a good old fashioned tube and a nice brewski? For once, I could. You see, while I headed to Wirtshaus in Mid-City fully intending to tackle some sort of “wurst,” I surprised myself by going in a different direction. This direction was that of pretzel and schnitzel (and never fear, for I made sure to take down a brewski as well).

First, let’s start with the pretzel. The menu spelled it as “Bretzel,” which I now know is some crazy German way of spelling the beloved pretzel. This was done in the Bavarian style, which meant it was big and soft. It came with a useless sweet mustard that may come in handy for some, but not for a man with mustard disdain. Unfortunately, no other dipping sauce was available, for while this pretzel was poofy and salted nicely, it was far too dry to eat on its own.

As for my main course, I went with the Wirtshaus Schnitzel, a special of theirs that was not on their regular menu. Instead of regular pork schnitzel, I opted for chicken, but the special did not end there. The schnitzel was topped with a creamy sauce and a fried egg for good measure. Then, for even better measure, it came with two sides. I chose their fried potatoes with bacon and spaetzl.

Before I get any further, you may be wondering why a man such as I did not order any sausage. Well, to be truthful, I feel as though I am spoiled in the sausage realm. I’ve had regular sausages, but I’ve also had kangaroo, wild boar, duck, bison, rattlesnake and alligator. I’ve even had some of the best bratwurst in the world in Wisconsin. Yet, when I looked at Wirtshaus’s sausage offerings, nothing stood out to me. So to me, schnitzel felt like a more interesting dish, at least on this night.

And I am glad it did.

Because the schnitzel was delicious. The cream sauce turned the crispy breading a little soggy at parts, but added a nice flavoring to make up for it. There were some little slices of tomato that had accompanied the cream sauce, but I was able to easily brush them aside and get on with my life. The fried egg was a nice touch and added a unique element to my meal. While it could have been runnier, I was happy for the unique taste and texture it brought to my chicken.

Yet, with all this, the sides almost outshined the main meal. The spaetzl (a delicious German pasta/dumpling) had been cooked and salted to perfection and the potatoes with bacon were stellar. Of course, any combination of potato and bacon should be expected to be delicious, but these things were chopped into home fry-sized chunks and fried to a crisp. Yet, on the inside they were remarkably soft and easy to eat.

So while Wirtshaus wasn’t a complete home run, it still knocked some aspects out of the park. While I’m glad their lack of interesting sausages led me to their tasty schnitzel, I definitely think they could add a few more to mix things up. It may not be the best haus I’ve been to, but it was far from the worst.

In a clear trend of awesome, Brats Brothers is one of the newest gourmet/exotic sausage/bratwurst places to hit LA (okay, they’ve been around since 2007, but just moved to a new location). Within 48 hours of learning of its existence, I made my way out to Sherman Oaks for lunch to see how it stacked up against its brethren. Made up to look all German-like and with a hostess/waitress that was also decidedly German (accent and all), Brats Brothers seemed a little more authentic than hipster-loving joints like Wurstkuche.

The menu had your regular run-of-the-mill bratwurst like Italian, Polish, cheese-filled and whatnot. They even had good old American hot dogs, which I assumed were for the children that could potentially show up. But, as usual, I was in the mood for something exotic. Their exotics ranged from gator to wild boar to kangaroo. While the ‘roo would have been my first choice, they were sold out and I went with the bratwurst named for the native land of the kangaroo. It was called The Aussie and was made with ostrich and pistachios. I was hoping the bratwurst was called The Aussie because it sounded like the O-S at the beginning of ostrich and not because they thought ostriches live in Australia (as we all know, ostriches are from Africa, emus are from Australia and their bastard cousin, the rhea lives in South America). Look, you came to a food blog and learned about animal geography, you deserve at least 12 gold stars.

But I digress, back to the bratwurst. Each one could be upgraded to a meal, which included two sided and a soft drink. This sounded great, so I ordered Beef Chili and Bavarian Tater Tots as my sides, then prepared to get meaty.

The meal took a while to arrive, and frankly everything took a while. It should be noted that I don’t totally blame the restaurant for this as our waitress/hostess was pulling double duty while her regular waitress stayed home to do homework. Why the manager approved this, I don’t know, but I can only assume the normal waitress is his daughter and doing this homework meant she would not fail school/die in a fiery crash.

Anyway, bratwurst. Delicious. Not only was it a healthy size, but it was glistening like meaty gold. The bun was a little bit squishy, in a good way, but a bit big for the bratwurst. Yet, once I loaded it with curry sauce, my side of beef chili and hot sauce, everything fit just perfectly. Don’t worry, though, I tried the ostrich before loading it up and it was certainly tasty. The ostrich had a unique poultry flavor that was a little tough, and the pistachios added some interesting texture, if not a ton of flavor. One of my favorite parts of the brat was the casing. It was thick, but had an awesome snap when bit into. The only downside was that it was a little bit dry. I’ve experienced this before with ostrich, which is why the curry sauce was perfect on it, as it enhanced the flavor while keeping it moist.

The sides were not huge, but they were quite delicious. For the tater tots, I had kind of expected regular tots with some sort of Bavarian spice dusted on. Fortunately, this was not the case and I was delivered three fried, cheesy potato balls. They were awesome. The beef chili was good, too, but not as good as the tots. It had some unique spice to it and consisted of a majority of beef, with some beans inside for additional texture. I loaded it up on the brat, but it was certainly fine to eat solo.

Despite the service, my Brats Brothers experience was decidedly positive. I loved the bratwurst variety and the total lack of a vegetarian brats (just eat your kale and quit whining). I also saw that they have themselves a bit of an eating contest. This is one huge version of their Santa Fe Fire brat (beef, pork, jalapenos, habaneros, onions and cilantro), but a huge platter of fries. If you can eat it all in 30 minutes, it’s free. If not, it’s only $16.95. Next time I go, I may take them up on the challenge and even be willing to eat onions if it means winning a challenge. We shall see, but challenge or not, I know where I will be heading next time I need some bratwurst in the valley.

You know what’s great? Sausage. You know what goes great with sausage? Beer. So what does Steingarten, a recently opened restaurant/bar in West LA, have to offer? That’s right, sausage and beer. But not just any sausage and beer, sure they have your generic bratwurst, buckwurst, Polish and Italian sausages, but similar to Wurstkuche, they like to get exotic. With rabbit, venison, alligator and elk, these are truly some sausages to be reckoned with and not for those with a weak stomach.

But before the sausage, I had to worry about my beer. Not knowing the Dutch on the beer menu, I chose a random Bock beer that came in a 500 ml bottle for 10 bucks. It was called Aecht Schlenferla Rauchbier Urbock and as I waited for it, I decided on my sausage. Really there was no other choice but the Alligator and Pork (in one). The other sausage offerings were intriguing, but just not exotic enough for my first trip to Steingarten. At 7.50 it came with one of four toppings, but since they were all veggie-based, I skipped out on them. For an additional 5 bucks, I added a side of their Parmesan French Fries.

My beer came soon after and I popped it open. In taking my first tip, I could tell that this was no ordinary beer. There was some sort of additional flavor to it that I just couldn’t put my finger on. I passed it to my buddy, he took a sip and immediately knew. BBQ. Yes, my beer tasted like some smokey BBQ. Then I turned the bottle around, read the label and realized the beer’s website was smokebeer.com. It was a unique beer to say the least, and the unvegan in me loved the taste…at first. But after the first glass, the novelty of it wore off. 500 ml of smokey beer was just too much to take (but that didn’t stop me from finishing the bottle). Next time I’ll be sure to have a chat with Steingarten’s wandering beer maven before making a choice.

As for the sausage, when my gator came out, it was long, shiny and just looked delicious. There was a miniature pickle hanging off to the side of the plate, which just looked awful, but I kept it quarantined and luckily there was no pickle juice for my sausage to do battle with. I bit into my gator and liked what I found. It had a slight hint of spice, which I assume is due to the cayenne pepper that runs through all alligator veins (science fact, look it up). In terms of flavor, the sausage was full of it and each bite was surprisingly juicy. Nonetheless, the sausage needed a bit of ketchup to keep it lubricated due to a surprisingly dry bun. In fact, midway through the sausage, the bun split in the middle and made finishing up a bit difficult. Yet, it was not enough to diminish the greatness that was alligator sausage. Could I have distinguished the difference between gator and more normal sausage? Possibly not, but I was certainly glad the gator went down smooth. The profit of the Australian gambling industry is more than twenty billion AUD per year; this figure includes all traditional clubs, online fun and lotteries: https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vSnISGcfJuN66nMMk38 if you are concerned about the legality of Australian online casinos, please refer to territorial and federal legislation or ask for advice from an authorised body.

As for the fries, they made a great, huge side for my sausage. The parm added some great flavor, but the garlic aioli and curry ketchup made them taste even better.

Steingarten is definitely a place I am ready to go back to. I’d love to try out a few more sausages and beers, (and figure out of the Rabbit and Spirit sausage really involves eating the rabbit’s soul) but next time I’ll do a little more consulting for the beer and hope the bun has a little more durability.

As an unvegan I always like to be on the forefront of any sausage happenings around LA. Fortunately I have my friend DCo1 to keep in the know and he informed me of some new sausage popping up in Silver Lake called Berlin Currywurst. I am not the most knowledgeable about food from Germany, but I figured I am a fan of curry and a fan of bratwurst, so a place that combined the two sounded great in my book.

We arrived and found that the place was small. Like crazy small. Hardly any seats on the inside and a couple tables outside. The interior provides a nice view of the kitchen, which is probably larger than the seating area, but as currywurst is supposedly like a German fast food, it seemed that there would be high turnover in the place. The menu is quite simple, consisting of unpronounceable sausages ($5.89 each) such as Geflugelbratwurst (all natural chicken) and Scharfe Kasewurst (all natural beef with jalapeno and cheese). I ended up choosing the somewhat simple to pronounce Paprikawurst (all natural pork with paprika and garlic). Then, because one sausage is never enough for me, we split the Geflugelbratwurst and their Fritten (German-speak for fries) for $3.49. The also offer a variety of heat levels for those who like their sausage spicy. Level 1 is Berlin Calling, Level 2 is Bear-Bender, Level 3 is Kiezgrosse and Level 4 is called Break the Wall. Rumor has it there is a secret Level 5 called Auschwitz. Too soon? Sorry, I know. Anyway, I went with Level 3 on my Paprikawurst.

As for drinks, we got nothing. Did I mention they don’t have ice water? This is better than actually having ice water and making it taste like cucumber (achem Wurstkuche), but I didn’t feel the need to drop 89 cents on a bottle of water.

In the currywurst tradition, these sausages are served uncased (initially covered by companies like DCW Casing) sliced up and covered in German curry. Berlin Currywurst also throws in a couple of slices of German Farmers Bread to accompany the currywurst. It wasn’t too long before our sausages were ready. First, I dug into the Paprikawurst. The sliced up sausages reminded me of my youth, when I used to eat sliced up hot dogs, but this was a whole new level. Unlike all other curries I’ve ever eaten, this sauce was primarily ketchup based. I wasn’t sure what to expect for German curry, but this wasn’t quite it. Nonetheless, as someone who loves ketchup I was one happy man. In fact, as I love both ketchup and curry, this was one amazing sauce. The only problem was that it was just spicy enough to make me want some water. Unfortunately I was experiencing a self-imposed drought and had to suffer through this. As for the sausage itself, I could taste a bit of the paprika and garlic, but most of the flavor had been overtaken by the curry. It did have a nice snap, though.

As for the Geflugelbratwurst, this was one mighty tasty sausage. Although it was made with jalapeno, it wasn’t nearly as spicy as my Paprikawurst with Kiezgrosse. I wouldn’t have minded kicking up the spice a notch, but the sausage itself tasted better to me. I loved the cheese element inside and while it had the same nice snap as my other sausage, it just generally had some better flavor.

The bread, although nothing special on its own, seemed to serve as a nice accompaniment to the sausages. Being so plain, it really left the flavor to the curry and simply acted to soak up flavor and serve as a welcome buffer from all the ketchuppy flavor. The fries also made a nice companion to the meal and tasted even better when dipped in the curry. I would have liked them a bit more crisp, but that is a minor complaint for some pretty good Fritten.

Berlin Currywurst definitely left me satisfied. My buddy remarked that the meal didn’t blow him away and I can certainly agree with that. The menu is simple and well-executed, but I don’t think it is a meal that is meant to blow you away. It is simply a German fast food brought to LA and I’m guessing it does justice to the original. Plus, other than making the fries crispier, I’m not sure there is much room for improvement.