OLD GERMAN BIERKELLER OPENS JULY 16!!

New "Old " German Bierkeller

When I had my nail salon in the late 70's on Huron Street, the Old German Restaurant ladies would deliver my lunch. Such great food andfor 3.25!! I miss the place terribly. But....good news...

Downtown Ann Arbor’s newest basement bar, the Old German, plans to start serving its craft-brewed German-style beers and chicken schnitzel sandwiches this week.

The bar, located in the basement of Grizzly Peak Brewing Company on West Washington Street, is set to open at 4 p.m. Tuesday, July 16.

Customers will find a new spin on Ann Arbor’s original Old German: a German restaurant that first opened downtown in 1928. Bud Metzger closed the Old German in 1995, when Jon Carlson and Chet Czaplicka bought the building and business to open Grizzly Peak.

Carlson and Czaplicka, along with their business partner Greg Lobdell, are opening the Old German.

“This is a tribute back to the Old German and that heritage of Ann Arbor,” Czaplicka said. “Bud (Metzger) was a really nice guy.” FULL STORY HERE

The Old German Restaurant was as close to Germany as you could get in Michigan. It's dark wooden interior and authentic artwork and dishes made you feel like you were having dinner in Munich.  My Mother used to bring us Gummi (goomee) Bears back in the early 1960's.

The Old German started in 1928 as a small eatery on Ashley with a horseshoe counter and a few tables. Original owner William Schwarz was a German-trained butcher who specialized in sausage making. When Prohibition was repealed in 1933, Schwarz couldn't get a liquor license because he was still a German citizen.

He sold the restaurant to the Haab brothers, Oscar and Otto, but they found it too hard to run restaurants in both Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti, so after a few years they offered to sell it back. Still not a citizen, Schwarz asked Gottlob Schumacher, a tailor at Wild's Men's Clothing, to become his partner and apply for the liquor license.

By the time Schumacher joined the restaurant in 1936, it had expanded into its L-shaped layout by taking over a grocery store facing Washington Street. READ MORE