Openings

Sprechen Sie Trendy? 2013 is German Food’s Year

The last time German food was hot, 1965.
The last time German food was hot, 1965.

We’ve already lost track of where we read this, but it was someone’s comment on the sudden craze for Scandinavian foraged cuisine— “Scandinavian is hot? What next, Bulgarian?” Well, maybe not (we ate Bulgarian once and let’s just say, it was no Slovenian) but if people are getting into Nordic food, which was last a trendy cuisine in Chicago in 1927, then it should be no trick for an eternally popular, but also eternally square, cuisine to make a comeback— German food. As kitschy as lederhosen and glockenspiels and Oktoberfests may be, there’s no reason that a cuisine built on pork and pickling and beer, all of which are hipper than hiphop right now, can’t come back on its own, stripped-of-the-kitsch terms. And Time Out Chicago reports on four examples of its likely return in 2013— from some that are already here like Table, Donkey and Stick (helmed by former Paul Virant protege Scott Manley), to the upcoming Radler (helmed by, um, former Paul Virant protege Nathan Sears). (TOC reports, as we did some time back, that Virant has a piece of Radler and its sibling D.A.S., but we ran into him at Green City a while back and he seemed to suggest that wasn’t the case.) Check out your German future and read the whole thing— and get ready for Finland 2014! [TOC]

Sprechen Sie Trendy? 2013 is German Food’s Year