The Sausage Stübe

In Regensburg – August 2007

This follows on from Two Nights in Regensburg

The sausage stübe

By the Danube in Regensburg is an ancient sausage stall, it’s like a hut with tables and chairs outside plus a few inside, and the kitchen cooks sausages over charcoal and boils up big pots of sauerkraut. Also you can get beer and other drinks, which come from the bar that’s part of the hotel alongside and are served by a different waiter. This sausage stall is advertised to tourists as being an attraction, so when we arrived it was busy, and we thought that if we were to find ourselves some places at the tables, we’d probably end up cutting it fine for the boat, but you could obviously queue for a takeaway so we decided to do that. Queuing for a takeaway turned out to be a wise choice, as it was probably more fun.

The famous sausage stübe is called the Wurstkuchl and has a website (in German) at http://wurstkuchl.de.

The queue for takeaway led from the kitchen of the hut, and out through the door where the waiter was gallantly pushing past to serve people, at a rate of knots though staying mostly cheerful. In the queue with me were part of a party of schoolchildren – it seemed that not all the children were getting a sausage in a roll from the Wurstkuchl, possibly it was just those that had some money to supplement their packed lunches. A teacher was orchestrating the relevant sections of the queue.

While queuing you could see the folks getting served at the tables, and there were a fair few foreigners among them, possibly they were all visitors, including a group of about twelve speaking English. Tour party maybe?

It did seem to be much more comfortable standing in the queue, and the other advantage was that the service point for the takeaway was actually in the kitchen, so you got to see the sausages being cooked.

Three women dressed in pink check traditional-style dresses with bib and long flowing skirts were topping up the charcoal, putting and turning sausages on the grill, and boiling up pots of sauerkraut. Do they do this every day? Every day cooking sausages in a smoky room, you must go home at night dreaming and smelling of sausages.

Ohne senf, ohne kraut!

One pink-check server was dealing with the takeaway orders, which consisted of a sausage in a roll, with or without either or both of sauerkraut and senf – German sweet mustard. The schoolboy in front of me was being instructed by the teacher, “Ohne kraut, ohne senf!”, she was shouting to him, which she was telling all the children, whether because they had a minimum budget, or perhaps more likely because she didn’t want to deal with the parents complaining of stains on trousers later, I thought it too forward to ask. The sausages were fairly straightforward pork sausages, nothing particularly special about them, it was the venue that counted.

The Chinese contingent

We ate our sausage rolls sitting on the steps leading down to the quays, along with hordes of others, and watched the people at tables in their somewhat more crowded conditions. A group of Chinese men turned up, dressed alike in a kind of blue collarless jacket and matching trousers. They were very cheery and looked like they might be academics possibly and they tried to find themselves a spot at the tables. They must have done this before because they persevered quite assertively, and did find rather a cramped space eventually. The Chinese men obviously liked the sausages and sauerkraut, and maybe potato, since at the tables you could get your sausages with bratkartoffeln.

Time to go when the smokers arrive

On the steps we were careful not to sit near anyone who was likely to light a cigarette, but then someone nearby us moved away and some rough-looking smokers took their place so we thought we’d make our way to the boat, though there was still nearly half an hour before it was due to leave.

The story continues with Valhalla.