Brauhaus Schmitz — Restaurant in Philadelphia

It had been a number of years before I had spent some time on South Street. I was bar-hopping with a good friend of mine last February and heard of a new Brauhaus on South Street. I actively sought out the place, as I had fallen in love with beer houses on my trip to Munich and Prague a few years ago.

The entrance was a bit concealed and we passed by it twice. It could use better lighting.

Indoors was relatively unremarkable: standard German beer house fare. There was a long bar leading to the back which was rather crowded. There was also a room in the back with another bar which was practically empty. We went to the back room first, but they dismissed us saying that they were "not serving" back there. There was certainly no shortage of staff lollygagging in the back room...

Cordoning off parts of the premises is a tactic used to jam patrons into one area. Not only does this facilitate service (less room to cover), but it also gives the (false) impression of being busy. Had the patrons been able to spread out on this Saturday night, the place would have looked half-empty.

The bartender was initially attentive to our requests. The beer selection is admittedly excellent. I recognized a Marzen I had not seen since I was last in Germany. My friend and I ordered food and waited...

...and waited, and waited, and waited...

The virtue of German food, like schnitzel and sausages, is that, for the most part, it can be prepared to order relatively fast. Our orders, knockwurst and bratwurst with sides of kraut, were not difficult orders. And yet, for this German beer house, our food order proved to be a Sisyphean feat. After forty-five minutes and two liters of beer, I asked the bartender to cancel our order. She protested that the food was "almost ready." We didn't want to wait any longer so I asked her again, politely, to cancel the order. She continued to argue with me to the point where I had to raise my voice to her: "WE DON'T WANT IT!" Resentful, the bartender punched a few keys on her POS station and marched off.

After another fifteen minutes we got our bill, as well as a surprise...the elusive food we had ordered. The bartender had put it in boxes for us to carry out. I explained that neither of us were hungry but the bartender insisted we take it. The food was on the house. My friend smiled. She gave the bartender a generous tip and said she would take the food to give to her dogs. The bartender bristled at the suggestion. "You cannot feed this to dogs!" We left the food at the bar and my friend withdrew her tip.

To sum up:

BEER: Excellent

FOOD: "Almost ready"

SERVICE: Ehhhhhhhhhh......I see this in a lot of places these days, particularly after the pandemic. It's as if people have forgotten how to be courteous to one another, and those that do remember simply find no value in acting that way. While there, we often felt as if the bartender was doing us a favor by serving us. In fact, it's the other way around!

Follow Up:

As the Owner has inquired, I can report that my visit was on the evening of Saturday,...

Overall, a bit disappointed! Great beer selection nice ambiance, friendly staff. We weren't in a rush, but everything took a really long time. In addition, the food I had was not that great. I grew up in Germany and have an idea what authentic German food tastes like. While I do understand that the same food is prepared different depending on the region in Germany, and I also know some restaurants in Germany have terrible food too. For my Bavarian taste buds, the food at Brauhaus Schmitz was not that great. The food took forever. We were a bigger group (8) sitting in the back room which was almost empty. I guess this is a thing now, but I don't like having to scan the QR code to look at the menu, especially if you have a bad cellphone reception. Maybe they should offer WiFi (maybe they do. I didn't ask). The server did offer paper menus but were only able to provide 2 for the table of 8. It took us about 30 minutes until we all had ordered our food. The drinks were brought out pretty fast, but I think the food took about 1 hour 15 minutes to 1 hour 30 minutes after we had ordered it. After we finished eating, the plates were cleared, and we declined the desert. We would have expected that they bring out the check/bill like they normally do in a restaurant in the U.S., but after a while I had to ask for it. Even then it took about 20 minutes to come out (at that time they really weren't that busy anymore) They also had already added the tip to the bill, and I'm glad the waiter pointed it out. I know this is common at other restaurants as well for larger groups.

Overall rating: Ambience 4/5 stars, for making the outdoor seating on a busy street look like a beer garden. Indoors was nice too. Nice decoration, not too much/too little, etc. However, I would have expected some German music. I didn't pay tharuchbattention to it at first, but later noticed that they were playing some spanish music.

Beer quality and selection 5/5 stars

Food 2/5 stars I had Sauerbraten with blue cabbage and small "potato dumplings" or whatever that was supposed to be. The gravy was about 3.5/5 stars and was the best out of everything else on that plate. The meat was thinly sliced and dry (and I usually like the meat well done, but this was just dry). Blue cabbage was ok. A little bit on the bitter side, possible overcooked. The so called potato dumpling were just terrible! Those were not potato dumplings, I think this was just mashed potatoes scooped out with an ice cream scoop and sat too long under a heating lamp. This was a joke! I definitely know what not to order next time. I'm hoping that they just had a bad or or something, and it won't be as bad next time. I will just order something else.

We also had Kartoffelpuffer. I would say 4/5 stars. A little bit too thick, but I know some regions in Germany make them like this too.

Summarized rating of all 2.5-3...

Attended an Oktoberfest event by Brauhaus at the Armory and it was awful. Let me preface this review by saying we attend a previous Oktoberfest event by Brauhaus at their location on South street, and we had a great time. So we were severely disappointed by this one.

Paid $100 per person for Uber VIP. We had a party of four. Uber vip included two drink tickets each, a cheese board appetizer and platters of food. Also a “new and improved” check in process. We were supposed to have “vip” bathrooms.

When we got to the venue, the line for vip wrapped down the block and around the corner. It took 35 minutes to get inside. The lone security guard outside kept yelling about concealed firearms, which none of us had. You would think they would specify that on the tickets or on signs out front if it was such an issue.

We arrived to our table to have people sitting in our seats eating our food that was mysteriously sitting on the tables already. These people were sitting in the VIP section with no wristband in sight. We explained to the waitress what happened and asked her to bring us new food.

The server seemed to be the only one in sight, responsible for at least 5 tables of 12 each. The tables were so jam packed in there you had to climb over people and benches to go anywhere. It seems like there way too many seats sold for a venue of that size and they did not have the staff to manage it.

Three times we asked the server to bring us new food after explaining three times what had happened. We never got the cheese board we payed for. We were served cold sausages, never saw what was the “platter” we were supposed to get that everyone else around us seemed to have.

When we went to get beer, the staff were witnessed dunking the nozzle of the keg into half full beers to fill them. This is not how you pour a beer, and is a high risk for contamination since you are placing the nozzle of a beer keg you hold into a drink. The beer we received was only 3/4 of the way full.

The “vip” bathrooms were gross. I watched some guy vomit in the corner. Probably because the bathrooms were overwhelmed because no one was checking for vip bands, so half the venue was using the two stalls available.

Event was clearly oversold, understaffed, and poorly managed.

I refuse to further support a business that puts profits over people. It’s such a shame because I used to hold Brauhaus in such good regard, and after attending the event, I do not want to support a business that just does not...