My first time at the Old German Beer Hall in Milwaukee WI, was a few years ago when I went with a few friends to get a beer after the German Fest and it was a blast. We drank delicious beer and took shots from the Shot Ski. This time, I went with my mom on the Thursday before German Fest since we had finished setting up the booth for the day and we were a bit hungry!
The ambiance was nice, it wasn't very busy when we first got there, but when we left the bar started filling up with the after-work beer drinkers. We didn't wear our Rare Dirndls because we knew that we were going to be wearing dirndls all day for the next 3 days… so we opted for something a bit more casual.
Thursday was 1/2 price liters, so if course we had to have a liter of beer. I had the Hofbräu Weißbier and my mom had the Hofbräu Original. Our server was Kaitlin and she was nice and her service was great (however I really, really wish she wasn't wearing a dirndl costume, but she did pull off the look better than most).
We ordered the Curry Wurst appetizer, the Schweineflügel -“Pig Wings” which were described as 3 Meaty Pork Petit Pork Shanks Served with Barbecue Mustard Dipping Sauce. We also had a side of Sauerkraut and Spätzle. We were a bit nervous that it was not going to be enough food, but it sure was!
The Curry Wurst was crispy and the sauce was absolutely delicious!!! I did however smell a bit like curry for the rest of the night, but if that's the only side effect I would order the curry wurst again in a heartbeat!
The Schweinflügel were also wonderful. Lovely pork flavor, with just enough fat and crispiness. The dipping sauce was super tasty… a unique blend of BBQ sauce and mustard flavors. I could have easily eaten an order by myself!
Unfortunately, the sides were less desirable then the appetizers. The sauerkraut tasted like it was fresh out of the can. The Spätzle was definitely home-made but the amount of butter was overwhelming… didn't stop me from finishing it, but it was simply too much butter.
Overall we had a lovely time, there was live music towards the end of our stay and like I mentioned the service was great. We would go again to try the other things on the menu and the beer specials are too good to pass up!
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Yesterday morning I got my lil booty out of bed at 4:45am to get ready to head down to Michigan Avenue for the taping of the Mancow Morning Show. After leaving the taping of the show, my best friend Nikki, assistant Samantha, and I all looked at each other... laughed and said, "What just the F* just happened? Was that real?" Let's back track and bit and start this craziness from the beginning.
Last Friday (about a week ago) Jason, the owner and chef at Bauer's Brauhaus in Palatine, IL called me up and said that they were going to feature the restaurant on the Mancow Morning Show. (my first thought was "Mancow has a morning show?" but then I remembered reading about it in one of my favorite blogs, A Drink With) Anyway… Jason then asked if I wanted to get some girls together wearing Rare Dirndls, and go on the show with him. Naturally, I said, "Sure!!"
Mancow during the show
Over the course of the next week (so this past week), I did a little Mancow Muller research, so I could prepare myself for his questions, comments etc. Let's just say, there was no amount of prepping I could have done to properly prepare me for this experience.
So back to yesterday morning... Nikki, Samantha and myself got down to the building (which I guess has most of the Fox studios in it… not quite sure) we walked in and the marketing director from Bauer's Brauhaus met us in the studio lobby and showed us to the dressing room and then onto the Green Room. Not 3 minutes after we walked into the Green Room and sat down, this LIVE camera comes in and puts our faces on TV. Naturally we just smiled and once the cameraman went into the other room, we looked at each other in disbelief, this was no ordinary morning talk show. A few minutes later a member of Mancow's team brought us into the studio and told us to stand in a space with a microphone and just look at Mancow, pretend that we are comfortable, look natural, smile and blow kisses at the cameras… this is the only information we were given.
From there it just got crazier. First thing everyone says to me as we walk into the studio was "Hey! You look like Taylor Swift" Mancow asked me if I was from Bauer's Brauhaus, and since I felt that I was there partly to represent the restaurant, I said yes… he then asked me if I brought food, to which I replied "No, I make dirndls" "OH! You make the drindles?! Cool" and then he moved on. (and you, you read that right… the dreaded Drindle… one of my biggest pet peaves, but what was I gonna do? Say "excuse me Mr. Mancow, but its Dirndl, not Drindle… it's a Bavarian style dress, not a toy you spin around on Hanukah")
He did an interview with Dov Davidoff (he's pretty funny comedian who has been on Chelsea Lately) and all of a sudden Mancow straight up asks him which one of us he thinks is the cutest… really Mancow, really!? However, I totally figured that something like that was going to happen. I was mostly impressed with Dov's answer! He said, with sincerity "maybe if I had 5 minutes to talk to them and get to know them a little bit, I could make an accurate decision!" Then Mancow made fun of him and made the camera man point it right at Nikki. Honestly, we were treated with respect in the studio by all of the members of the Mancow team, but the actual broadcast was offensive, since cameras were mostly on our chests and not our faces. Not to mention it was difficult to talk about Rare Dirndl when Mancow was a bit busy talking about himself and playing clips from the past that were disturbing and disgusting.
I knew anytime Mancow was directing questions at me, I had to just play along with the 150% unscripted chaos that was going on. I could go on and on about the ridiculousness that took place yesterday, from the girl named "Amanda Bynes" coming to co-host monday's show wearing the teeniest dress with a tiger face on it and making that goofy kiss lip duck face to the camera, to having a wacky Michael Meyers-eque mannequin behind me, or listening to Mancow rant about the Coke commercial from the Super Bowl for a solid 5 min and listening to a man (who told us he was Simon Kirke, drummer from the band Bad Company) tell us about his 2 pet tigers! Seriously… it was an experience I'll never forget, but can hardly believe!
Hopefully someone out there who watches the Mancow Morning show likes some of my designs enough to check out my website… highly unlikely, but you never know. Thanks to Jason for inviting us. And thanks to the lovely man who took my business card and said he would call me soon so we can go back on the show... probably not going to happen… I'll wait for a call from Ellen ;-)
Like what we were wearing on the show? Here are links to the online store and Spring/Summer promo video where you can check out the dirndl Samantha is wearing (coming soon!)
