Lots of brews, a few bites

The new Midtown spot Der Biergarten is a slightly quirky, low-key place to eat a meal. Perhaps it’s not even really a place to eat a meal. Maybe, as its website explains, it’s more “Sacramento’s spot to come and socialize over some great German beer and light German fare.”

Whatever the case, the entire menu offers just nine food items. With about 30 cold ones on tap—plenty of imported German brews, Belgians and some domestic German-style beers—the beer menu is about three times as long as the food menu, but this review is mostly about the edible, not drinkable, portion of the menu.

Patrons order from a building that was built from a couple of cargo containers and dine outdoors on communal benches, traditional German biergarten style.

I visited three times: a Saturday night, a Saturday afternoon and a Tuesday evening. Each time, the place was packed with a diverse crowd of talkative beer-drinking patrons having a good time.

On my first visit, I ordered a Derfinater Dog, a gussied-up hot dog which the menu bills as a “Frankfurter stuffed with Cheddar Cheese, wrapped in bacon, fried and served on a roll with our house made garlic sauce, mayo, cream cheese and BBQ Sauce.”

This may sound like something Guy Fieri would serve, but despite its seemingly excessive number of toppings, everything served a tasteful purpose. The mayo and garlic sauce helped moisten a somewhat dry roll. Likewise, the molten cheddar helped keep the frankfurter moist. The bacon added saltiness, which balanced the sweetness of cream cheese and barbecue sauce.

After eating the Derfinater Dog, it was pretty tough to try the Dog Haus sandwich on the next visit. The Dog Haus—simply a frankfurter on a roll with sauerkraut—lacked all the accoutrements that made the Derfinater a hit. The frankfurter was overcooked and dry, the bun was also overly dry and airy without any sauce, and the sauerkraut simply made the whole thing taste sour.

Next up, the Belgie Schinken: “Prosciutto Ham served on a Belgium Waffle with our house made mustard, sweet onions, bib lettuce.” In theory, it sounded well-balanced, and it almost was. The prosciutto tasted salty, the mustard was sour and vinegary, and the sweet onions were semisweet, but the effect didn’t really punch through. The overall taste was a little too sour and salty.

The other waffle sandwich, the Belgie Cristo, did strike the right balance, however. Ham, turkey, cream cheese and chipotle-raspberry sauce gave it a nice sweetness. Both paired well with the included sweet and vinegary German potato salad.

The pretzel disappointed by being a bit on the flaky, brittle and crispy side, rather than being the soft, fluffy, chewy German pretzel I was expecting. As for the other sides, the two salads (a cucumber salad and a house salad) and fries were remarkable only for their ordinariness.

To finish eating my way through the whole menu, I sampled the sausage platter: a pork sausage, chicken sausage, and a veal-and-pork sausage—all sourced from Morant’s Old Fashioned Sausage Kitchen. All three were much more plump, juicy and flavorful than the frankfurters. Each was perfectly cooked with char marks on the outside and a tender melt-in-your-mouth consistency inside. Served alongside heaping piles of sauerkraut and German potato salad, the platter was the best—and probably the most authentically German—item on the menu.

Lastly, the staff behind the counter are friendly and reasonably knowledgeable about beer, giving helpful pointers and samples. That makes Der Biergarten a great spot to grab a beer and hang out, and pair some German grub with it.