Fredericksburg is one of those towns where you make a special trip each year for shopping, visiting some of the beautiful old buildings and, eating the delicious German food available in town. The vast majority of weekend visitors to Fredericksburg stay in one of it’s 300+ bed & Breakfast establishments. We of course, were camping nearby, and only visited for a day.
Fredericksburg was the first German settlement in Texas and still shows many signs of that heritage today. There are signs around town for “the best burger in Fredericksburg” or wine tastings, hot coffee and all manner of food. But there was no way I was leaving Fredericksburg without some traditional German food. We quickly settled on the Old German Bakery & Restaurant. Full of delicious looking pastries and breads on one side, and restaurant seating on the other, we knew we were in for some treats.
Schnitzel, bratwurst, spaetzle – it was all on the menu. And while perhaps not the best meal ever or anything, it was well prepared, reasonably priced and a good taste of Germany if you are looking for that. On the bakery side there were Christmas stollen breads, pastries and dark, dark German breads.
There are also several biergartens around town. It’s basically a bar and restaurant with a large outdoor seating area. Those in Fredericksburg offer a host of German beers as well as other beverages of both the adult and regular variety. If you’re lucky you may get to drink your beer from a stein in the traditional German way. They are also nice if you’ve brought your dog along. At Altdorf for sure, and possibly at the others (though we didn’t check) you can bring your dog along to the outdoor seating area.
We also found a lovely cheese shop on Main Street that had a wide variety of specialty American cheeses as well as imported cheeses available for tastings or to buy by the pound and take home. Fredericksburg Winery is located on Main Street also and there are several other wineries located in and around Fredericksburg.
We did not have time to stop and sample all of the food in Fredericksburg, but I also saw a chocolate shop, a few BBQs, and some places offering coffees and desserts. You can definitely find something interesting while you are in Fredericksburg. If you’ve never tried German food, give it a go at the Old German Bakery or one of the biergartens. If that’s old hat to you, try so Texas BBQ, some yummy Tex-Mex or make it a wine and cheese tasting trip. There are so many options it would be hard to go wrong.
