Sausages and sauerkraut. Beer and big pretzels. Lederhosen and dirndls. Is this what you picture when you think of German food?

It’s a fair picture to paint, but one that fails to capture the wide variety of cuisines found within one of Western Europe’s largest countries. Much of what we think about when it comes to German food is representative of just one state, Bavaria, and even then, it’s a small silver of what you’ll find when you visit.

Gravlax. Beet cured salmon, rösti, pickled red onions, caper, horseradish crème fraiche.

Otto’s, a farm to table bistro in Fredericksburg, Texas is changing people’s perception of German food one diner at a time.  In addition to brot und butter, the wurst plate and duck schnitzel, the fresh food-focused menu also features mussels and gravlax, rockfish and ricotta sage gnocchi, and a wicked cambozola cheesecake. 

Tucked just off Main Street, attracting visitors and tourists alike, Otto’s is a cozy restaurant painted with white walls, decorated with wood and iron furniture, and featuring an open kitchen on your left as you enter the dining room. Dim lighting sets the mood for an evening among friends and family.

In a town where German restaurants serve five different schnitzels, several sausages and, often, cheeseburgers and quesadillas to offer something for everyone, Otto’s is charting a new course. The menu draws inspiration not only from Bavaria, but from the rest of Germany, Austria and the Alsace region of France, with a wine menu closely aligned in its geographic scope. 

Flammkuchen. Flatbread with crème fraiche, caramelized onions, comté and cambozola cheese, bresaola, seasonal greens, pickled chanterelles, sherry gastrique.

Mussels, served here in a broth with carrots, fennel, speck and dill, and cured salmon, served atop a thin rösti with pickled red onions and horseradish crème, can easily be found in Northern Germany along the Baltic Coast. Goulash, served seasonally, is an Austrian staple, with every grandmother having her own recipe for how to make it just right. Flammkuchen hails from the western part of the country while gnocchi isn’t uncommon to find in southern Germany along the border with Italy. It may not be schnitzel, but it’s still German. Isn’t it?

Part of the reason John and Evelyn Washburne opened Otto’s was to change people’s perception of German food, to showcase other facets of a cuisine that has a lot to offer both in terms of taste and tradition. “We don’t write the menu in German because we want it to be approachable,” Evelyn says.

Otto’s certainly offers a welcoming vibe. Locals who come often find themselves branching out to try new things, whether that’s a different type of sausage or sauerbraten. “I love it when we do sauerbraten, but we don’t do it everyday. People will look forward to it and when they see it now, they’re not afraid of it,” she adds.

Regulars have come to influence the couple’s menu choices. Despite various attempts to rotate Otto’s duck schnitzel off the menu, customers won’t have it. Tonight, the thinly pounded, breaded and pan-fried duck breast comes with an apple mustard sauce, cheesy spätzle and duck cracklings.

Cambozola Cheesecake. Guava coulis, caramel, candied pecans.

The other motivating factor for opening Otto’s lies in John and Evelyn’s desire to create a sustainable farm-to-table restaurant that supports local farmers and producers. Aside from beverages, everything in the restaurant comes from within a 150 mile radius.

“It’s a way to be able to support an industry that I think should be more accessible to more people. That’s something John and I are really passionate about because we should know where our food comes from.”

The restaurant has been open for five years, which means more inside the world of hospitality than it does outside of it, proving there’s an appetite – at least a budding one – for farm-to-table German cuisine.