News from Lake Michigan

Two stories showing the quirks of the restaurant business...

The bad news: Chicago's historic "Berghoff" restaurant and bar is closing.  The various Berghoff brews will survive, as the family sold its recipes and brewing contract to the Huber brewery in Monroe, WI many years ago.  It's always sad to see old landmark destinations pass on, likely to be reinvented in 10-15 years with a Disney-fied "authentic German rathskeller."

The good news: Just up the lake shore, the Weissgerber family has expanded its restauarant efforts to include a new establishment, "The Old German Beer Hall."  Unlike the future Chicago hall I just described, I have fairly high hopes for this place, since there will be plenty of local experts to advise if the beer hall strays from its essential mission, and the Weissgerbers have a pretty good reputation for their current restaurants (esp. Third Street Pier).  Also, with the closing of John Ernst's and the Brown Bottle, and the reputed declines at Karl Ratzsch's and Mader's, it's nice to see someone reaffirming the city's proud German heritage.

The grousing has already begun over at OnMilwaukee.com, but that's par for the course -- Milwaukee has a potent mix of "tall-poppy syndrome" and occasionally-misguided parochialism.