Woodbine, revisited
Cheryl Unruh
Tuesday, May 1, 2007
I go for ages without eating a German meal, and now twice in one month I’ve had food from the Deutsch. Schnitzel. That’s what they serve on Sundays and Wednesdays in Woodbine, at a restaurant called Brigitte and Me.
Dave and I first investigated Woodbine (pop. 207) after an Emporia friend, Eleanor Browning, told us about her hometown. In 2004, Dave and I photographed this Dickinson County community, located halfway between Herington and Junction City.
On that initial visit, we ate at the town’s café and became acquainted with Max and Brigitte Wendell.
Max has kept us updated on Woodbine news and recently he invited us to dine again at their café.
So last week, Dave and I arrived at the restaurant at 11:30 on Sunday morning. Already, cars had crowded around the blue metal building at K-209 and Broadway.
Eleanor Browning also drove from Emporia and she and her parents, Woodbine residents Verland and Waneda Middleton, joined Dave and me.
The Woodbine area is full of Germans — mostly of the Lutheran and Methodist variety. Reading the gravestones in area cemeteries will crowd your head with names such as Jahnke, Schlesener and Oesterreich.
The café in Woodbine serves four kinds of schnitzel. They also serve spaetzle — homemade egg noodles that look like wavy yellow spaghetti.
Schnitzel is breaded pork loin, and it’s the topping that defines them. Wiener schnitzel comes with lemon slices. Gravy schnitzel has gravy.
Mushroom gravy covers the jaeger schnitzel and the zigeuner is served with spicy red and green pepper gravy.
On German food days, customers choose either mashed potatoes or noodles, or a half serving of each. Our meal also included corn, applesauce, roll and cake.
After lunch, I slipped into the kitchen to learn how they put it all together.
Max had started early that morning by making “six dozen eggs’ worth of noodles.”
A few years ago, Max and Brigitte retired from the restaurant business, but returned last year along with another partner. During their hiatus from the café, store-bought noodles were used and that “didn’t go over worth a hoot,” Max told me.
“People come here for the noodles,” he said. Several others worked in the kitchen that Sunday morning. Brigitte had peeled enough potatoes to fill a large pot. Joan Reed prepped the pork loins, Martha Krause fried them.
Red applesauce was made ahead of time. “That’s a private recipe,” Max said as he named its special ingredients — off the record. So, as much as I would like to share the secret of the applesauce, I cannot.
Brigitte is from Germany. Max met her when he was in the service and brought her to Kansas twenty-some years ago. Brigitte’s accent is as thick as the schnitzel.
A hostess with humor, Brigitte spent most of the time in the dining area, but zipped in and out of the kitchen. As she passed by me one time, she said, “We need more German restaurants around.”
Another time through the kitchen, Brigitte grabbed the pen out of my note-taking hand to use in the dining room (which left me, for heaven’s sake, without a pen.)
Sunday is a big day in the cafe, although they’re only open for three hours. “Don’t know what we’ll have today, but I’d say we’re running pretty close to a hundred (meals),” Max said.
Woodbine and the nearby communities support the restaurant. A crowd of diners had come from Herington that day.
“It’s always busy in here,” Waneda Middleton told me.
So goes another happy day in Woodbine — and I’m schnitzeled up for awhile.
Brigitte and Me is open Sunday, 11-2; Mon.-Fri., 7-2. Reservations are requested for schnitzel days (Sun. and Wed.) 785-257-3341.
“Flyover People” is online at www.flyoverpeople.net.
• Cheryl Unruh can be reached at cheryl@flyoverpeople.net.
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elebrown (anonymous) says...
Cheryl should receive an "A" or, at least, a gold star, for spelling! And, she is right! Eating at Brigitte's is a delicious and terrific experience! Let's all go to Woodbine! Thank you, Cheryl, for helping us all feel like we were there!
May 2, 2007 at 11:51 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )