Colorado Springs’ Best Kept Secrets: Uwe’s German Restaurant

Michael and Sabine Berchtold answered an ad in a German paper 15 years ago to buy a German restaurant in Colorado.

They flew here from their home in Bavaria to take a look at the goods, as it were, and as Sabine Berchtold said, "We just fell in love with Colorado Springs."

Just off Platte is where they stared their cozy little restaurant, Uwe's.

The Berchtolds have now brought a little piece of Germany into our fair mountain city. When you walk in to this unobtrusive restaurant, the first surprise is how open it feels. The Berchtolds have used their small amount of space efficiently and made the dining area feel welcoming.

The walls are adorned with pictures from both Michael and Sabine's home countries. In one room, pictures of Neuschwanstein Castle, near Sabine's hometown, cover the walls.

In another, photos of the tiny hamlet near Lucerne, Switzerland, where Michael is from, are displayed beside a Swiss newspaper. In the hallway is a set of pictures of trachten, German clothing fashions from the last 100 years.

Uwe's (pronounced oo-vuh), according to its menu, specializes in "Authentic German and European Cuisine." The restaurant offers a wide selection of classic items.

Sabine Berchtold said, "It's really hard [to choose a favorite]. I like the jaeger schnitzel, the roulade and the sauerbraten. I don't really have an actual favorite."

Schnitzel is fried, breaded meat with a couple of different variations. Jaeger schnitzel is pork and wiener schnitzel (pronounced veena) is veal.

Sauerbraten is a Bavarian dish, native to the southern part of Germany. It is marinated beef with red cabbage and dumplings. Roulade is a German-style beef roll.

And of course, no German restaurant would be complete without beer. Uwe's offers Warsteiner, hefeweizen and doppelbock, among others. It also imports German wines by the glass and the bottle.

Dessert is not forgotten, either. Uwe's has cheesecake, rice pudding and offers a hot Bavarian apple strudel. You can wash it down with a cup of their German-style coffee.

With the restaurant being so easy to miss, one might wonder how it has lasted so long. "We've got a lot of regular customers," Sabine Berchtold said. "They're like family."

The Berchtolds also do not shy away from hard work. "We're the first ones here and the last ones to leave."

At a full seating capacity of only about 75 people, Sabine Berchtold highly recommends making a reservation. "It gets busy at lunchtime a lot," she said.

Uwe's is not open in a single block of time every day. Instead, it is open for a couple of hours at lunchtime and then a couple of hours at dinnertime.

The Lowdown

What:

Uwe's German

Restaurant

When:

Lunch:

Monday - Saturday,

11 a.m. - 2 p.m.

Dinner:

Monday - Saturday,

5:30 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.

Where:

31 N. Iowa Ave.

How much:

Entrees start at $10.95