Dakota Inn: I revisit the Rathskeller after some forty years!

Sometime in the Sixties, I remember visiting this wonderful German restaurant in my old Detroit neighborhood, The Dakota Inn. What stood out most in my mind from that childhood visit, was the image of a roomful of people singing along to the words to old songs-German songs, as I remember-while they watched the words displayed by a slide projector on the wall. This was quite a long time before I ever heard the word, "karaoke"!

Well, I have long since moved out of the neighborhood and, in fact, most of the neighborhood has pretty much disappeared, having been destroyed by blight and crime and pretty much bulldozed into something resembling a farm field with sidewalks. But The Dakota Inn remains and I revisited the place last night with my wife and another couple. We had a wonderful time and look forward to going again (Karneval is every weekend in February!).

Check out the site for pics and history, as the visit is well worth it! We had dinner and a few good beers. We started with kartoffelpuffer, a kurtz stack and went on to have the following four entrees: Cheese Spaetzle (Kasespaetzle), Sauerbraten, Huhnerfleisch (chicken breast)and Rouladen. All was passable, authentic German fare. We all remarked that the food was generally more bland than we'd have liked but really quite good. The chicken breast was the only disappointment, being tough and somewhat dry.

The beer, however, was not the least bit disappointing. In fact it was sehr gut! We started with a 23 ounce draft Fraziskaner, Hefe-Weisse Dunkel which was dark, mysterious, delicious and a big beginning entry to the German bier fare we were about to experience. Next we tried the obvious, a Spaten Optimator, a slightly larger, more extreme German large lager(bottle). Finally, we ended the night with a big half liter of Aventinus Wheat Doppelbock (bottle), oh my! What a fine finish to a great evening!