Germany loves reality television, especially when it has to do with houses or food. I can’t bring myself to watch most of it (except for when it has to do with singing – those shows are pure awesome), but recently Headbang got us interested in a show called Mein Restaurant. The premise is simple – five couples each get to open a restaurant in their hometown (Berlin, Munich, Cologne, Hamburg, and Leipzig) based on a concept they have developed. Once the restaurants are up and running, they get eliminated one by one, until only the winner restaurant is left. Upon each elimination, the losing couple has 15 minutes to clear out and close down… forever (imagine that said by a spooky voiceover guy). So far, Leipzig and Berlin have been eliminated.
The major flaw with this particular TV show concept, as I see it, is that the losing restaurants are chosen not by food critics or even regular old restaurant patrons, but by the members of the TV audience willing to spend money to call in and vote. How silly is that?
Having seen the show a couple times, we decided it was time to take the plunge. The Grinsekatze (Munich’s Mein Restaurant) wasn’t taking dinner reservations for last night, but we were offered a table at the bar for drinks and appetizers. It was a date.
As we walked in (and had plastic snow dumped on our heads) we immediately saw the TV crew, intently filming something that was going on behind the bar. I suddenly wished I had paid more attention to the show, since I knew I was unlikely to recognize many of the characters employees from TV.
Our waitress was friendly and explained the concept to us, making sure to point out the card on the table which declared the “Emancipation of Men” in the Grinsekatze. You see, a restaurant critic who had dined there had complained that the waitstaff was inconsistent about serving the women at a table first, as is the custom in fine dining establishments. As a reaction to the criticism, the Grinsekatze decided to make serving men first the policy in their restaurant. After all it fit in with their Alice in Wonderland theme*, where things are different and unexpected.
“Can you give me another example?” I asked the waitress.
“An example of how things are different? Well, like this serving men first thing.”
“No, I meant another example.” I was wondering if she was going to come back with while most restaurants choose Christmas decorations based on how festive they appear, we went with the ones that looked shittiest.
“Another one? Oh, well, um, there’s no sign outside with our name on it, like a typical restaurant would have.” And here I had been thinking they just hadn’t gotten around to putting one up. But no, they were going out of their way to make sure that hastily-applied spray-on window snow was the only thing out there to lure in passersby. How delightfully clever.
Our appetizers arrived followed by our drinks (another wacky detail, perhaps?), and we dug in. The beverages were fine, but the food was most mediocre. The vegetarian part consisted of a couple low-end marinated vegetables, oh and a giant raw garlic clove, which I mistook for pickled garlic until my teeth broke into it. The burn… I really wanted to spit it out, but at that moment the waitress came back to check on us, and I suddenly remembered all the cameras around which could be watching me, and I certainly didn’t want to be on German television spitting out a garlic clove that I was too big a wuss to eat, so I soldiered on and ate the damn thing. On the bright side, my immune system should be all set for a while.
Despite the overall lackluster experience we had at the Grinsekatze, I still left with a little desire to go back, perhaps after watching another couple shows so I can enjoy people-watching more. And to give the dinner menu a chance. But next time, I’m spitting out the garlic. I mean, if that’s what my German national TV debut is meant to be, then so be it.
* Grinsekatze is the German name for the Cheshire Cat
The waitress did try to tie the lack of a sign into the Alice in Wonderland story too, because Alice didn’t know what she was getting into either. A for effort, but it still sounded like after the fact rationalization, much like the serving of the men first.
I was also disappointed that although we ordered mixed drinks, and the co-founders had showed off their juggling bartender tricks on TV, we received no performance.
Yes! More juggling!
Still, you gotta give them points for attitude.
What I’d like to be able to give them points for is the cleverness and whimsy with which they carried out the theme. Alas, I cannot.
I mean, come on. If you’re going to serve the men first, just do it already, and do it with gusto. None of this pussyfooting around with cards that explain and apologize in advance in case anyone is not amused. Get on with it, and then think up some better whimsy.
I’m still unclear why this is entertaining. But spitting out raw garlic on German tv, that deserves an Emmy. Go for it next time!
I wonder what the German version of an Emmy is…
You totally should have spit out the garlic.
Incidentally, on our trip to Italy last month, we noticed that the servers universally took the order of the men before the women (dunno if we totally screwed up and were supposed to order for them) although I can’t remember who actually got *served* first.
Next time, I promise. Spitting it across the room like Mr. Burns spitting out a piece of Blinky the three-eyed fish.
The Bambi would be the German Emmy. For TV and media though.