At the Table: Heidelberg Inn serves hearty German, American fare

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QUEENSBURY — The Heidelberg Inn, which looks like an alpine chalet with its quaint lace curtains and flower boxes, has been offering German and American dishes to locals and visitors for more than 35 years, and I was pleased to find on a recent visit that the food and service continue to be quite good indeed.

The dining room is small and intimate — so it’s probably a good idea to make a reservation if you’re going for dinner. It’s one room and it includes a bar where you can roost and select from a variety of German beers.

You can get chicken wings here and potato skins and chicken tenders. But you can also order leberkase, the German “sausage” which is really more of a pate, redolent of Madeira or Cognac and a curious meld of strong and mild flavors. At the very least, as you sit secure with a battalion of guardian nutcrackers in assorted sizes and styles ringing the room, order a grilled knockwurst, which comes with house sauerkraut and melted cheese on a hard roll. It’s called “The Frankfort,” and you can find it in the menu’s specialty sandwiches section.

Sunday dinner

We visited on a Sunday afternoon and, only later did I learn, could have ordered dinner. They serve dinner starting at noon on Sundays. Unaware, we settled for a late lunch. My lunch mate does not have an adventurous palate — more of a chicken tenders kind of guy — but I persuaded him to at least go for something German-sounding and he ordered a reuben ($7.25), and pronounced it “wicked good.” It was a pile of corned beef topped with Swiss cheese, house sauerkraut and Russian dressing grilled on rye bread. Choices of side dishes include potato or macaroni salad, cole slaw and German potato salad. For an extra 35 cents you can substitute french fries and for an extra $1.75, you can have potato pancakes. He went for the fries.

I spent too much time poring over the Heidelberg’s extensive menu and finally settled on a Heidelberg club sandwich ($9.50), a triple-decker of ham, turkey, Swiss cheese, bacon and shredded cabbage in house marinade with Russian dressing. It was first rate. I chose German potato salad for my side and enjoyed it immensely. It is served in the traditional way — warm sliced potatoes with bits of bacon and chopped parsley and a slightly tangy dressing.

Before our sandwiches arrived, I noticed the posting for the soups of the day, and they were offering a lobster bisque. It seemed like a great idea on a cold afternoon, and I quickly amended our order. The bisque was thick and sweet, flavored with bits of lobster, and proved a satisfying way to warm the innards.

Other choices

The Heidelberg’s soup du jour is $2.25 for a cup or $2.75 for a bowl.

The Heidelberg also offers omelets ranging in price from $6.50 to $7.75 and a quiche that varies daily and comes with choice of soup or salad for $7.95. Salads include Caesar ($6.50), the house’s chef salad ($9.50) and a tomato stuffed with chicken or tuna salad and served with cottage cheese and hard-boiled egg ($8.50).

There is also a variety of burgers. A cheeseburger is $6.50 or you can get adventurous and order the “Heidelburger,” 8 ounces of ground beef grilled on rye bread and topped with blue cheese, red onion and bacon ($7.95) Burgers come with a choice of macaroni or potato salad, coleslaw or, for slightly more, french fries or potato pancakes.

Those same sides are available with the deli sandwiches, which range from chicken salad ($6.50) and liverwurst ($5.95) to pastrami, roast beef or turkey breast ($6.95).

You can also find an old-fashioned hot turkey ($9.50) or hot roast beef ($9.25) sandwich with french fries or mashed potatoes, salad or coleslaw. And there are seafood dishes such as haddock and a shrimp platter.

I mentioned the grilled knockwurst under the specialty sandwiches section of the menu. Also there, you’ll find the Beef Wick ($6.75), the Heidelberg’s take on French dip, and the Tyrol ($5.75), melted cheese, sautéed mushrooms and onions on grilled pumpernickel.

Dinner entrees come with soup and salad and a choice among potato pancakes, mashed, french fries or home fries or the house’s spaetzle, German egg noodles.

The classics are all here. Sauerbraten ($17.95), which I’ve enjoyed at the Heidelberg in the past, is beef marinated in traditional style and served in a gravy enriched with crushed ginger snaps, with the house’s red cabbage as accompaniment. There is also wiener schnitzel, 8 ounces of veal breaded and browned lightly and served with fresh lemon garnish ($17.95) and a Jaeger schnitzel, medallions of veal that are breaded, pan fried and served with a hearty burgundy sauce and mushrooms.

Our tab, for sandwiches and sides, soup, and sodas, was a reasonable $31.40 with tax and tip. As we left, full and contented, I promised myself to return soon for dinner.

NAPKIN NOTES

Leberkase, a German terrine pate or “sausage,” is quite complex and I’d find it daunting to make, but I’d certainly order it any time it appeared on the menu of a good restaurant, and that’s not often. It’s a mixture of ground veal liver or pork liver, pork belly, anchovies, flavored with marjoram, salt and pepper, along with Madeira or Cognac. It also involves a gelatinous meat stock or aspic, which is a job to make in itself. It’s baked in a water bath, often with a lining of bacon or other smoked pork. In Germany, a friend pointed out, which city attaches its name to the leberkase determines how much liver it must contain.

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