Last week, the Missus and I spent a week in Arkansas. Having one night to spend in Little Rock, I looked up THE German restaurant in town, which happens to be Fassler Hall located downtown a few blocks from the state capitol. The location is a combination of beerhall-sports pub with an outdoor "beer garten".
Though the menu did not have many German entrees, I picked out a pork schnitzel with gravy that was very good, a sort of Jaegerschnitzel, if you will.) My first beer was a Paulaner, which was nice, as it usually is in the US, and the second was something new. It was Hirter Brau (No, not Hitler). It was a dark beer and very nice though I don't usually drink dunkles. Looking it up on Google, I discovered it was n Austrian beer, which I had never heard of. I informed the staff and they had not known it was Austrian.
The employees are basically young American kids, so I didn't get to meet any Germans. Anyway, it was a good meal.
The rest of the week, we spent in Hot Springs. The only German restaurant in Hot Springs is Steinhauskeller, which is located, appropriately, in a downstairs cellar in the historic old town of Hot Springs. Again, I saw no German employees. The first night in town, we stopped into the bar for a pretzel and a couple of beers. (Munich Hofbrau Oktoberfest). Later that week, we had dinner there. I had a cheese schnitzel, which was great. In addition to the Hofbrau, I again tried a new beer, which comes from the Hamburg area and is called Wernesgruener (in a bottle). It was fine, and if I had had it in the US 10 years ago, I would say it was almost authentic German taste. It had the smoothness I expect in German beer with no aftertaste.
I noticed that like Fassler Hall in Little Rock, they also served Hirter, but this time I didn't order it.
Choices for German restaurants in Arkansas are limited, at least in the two major towns, but if you are there, I recommend both.
