Beer gardens and Brotzeit

What it is

Brotzeit means bread time. It is a snack meal that needs no cooking: pretzels, dark bread, a spiced cheese spread, sliced sausage, sausage salad, radish cut into spirals and salted, pickles and butter. Hot food is sold too, from stands: roast chicken, pork knuckle, grilled fish on a stick, white sausages with sweet mustard before noon. Beer is served in a one-litre glass mug called a Mass. A mix of beer and lemonade, the Radler, is popular with cyclists.

Where it comes from

Before refrigeration, Bavarian brewers stored summer beer in cellars dug into river banks and planted chestnut trees above to keep the ground cool. They began selling beer on the spot. Innkeepers complained about the competition, and in the early nineteenth century the Bavarian king allowed brewers to serve beer at their cellars but not food. Guests brought their own. That is the origin of a right still honoured in traditional beer gardens: you may bring your own meal.

How it works

A traditional beer garden has two zones. Tables with tablecloths have waiter service and you must order food from the house. Bare tables are self-service. There you fetch beer and food from the counters, and you are free to unpack a picnic of your own, as long as the drinks are bought on site. Mugs carry a deposit. Tables are shared, so you ask whether a space is free and sit down beside strangers.

How to do it

1. Head for the bare wooden tables if you want self-service.
2. Ask ist hier noch frei before sitting at a shared table.
3. Fetch your beer from the counter and keep the deposit token.
4. Buy a pretzel and a plate from the food stands, or unpack your own.
5. Return your mug to get the deposit back.

Good manners

• Bringing food is fine at self-service tables. Bringing drinks is not.
• Hold the mug by the handle and look people in the eye when you say Prost.
• Some tables are reserved for regulars and marked Stammtisch. Do not sit there.

What is eaten

PretzelA baked knot-shaped bread, often topped with salt or seedsObatzdaBavarian cheese spread mixed with butter, paprika and spicesWeisswurstMild veal and pork sausages gently cooked and served warm, a Bavarian morning tradition

Also part of it, and being written: Leberkäse, Schweinshaxe, Steckerlfisch, Wurstsalat, Hendl, Shandy.

Sources and further reading

• Beer garden on Wikipedia
• Oktoberfest.de: Food and drink at the festival
• Bavaria Travel: official travel magazine of Bavaria