Das Essen Hutte opens in new location with expanded menu

A solid-wood Brunswick bar from the 1800s is the focal point of the new Das Essen Hutte location downtown.

By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post

German eatery Das Essen Hutte is in a new location in downtown Hays with an expanded menu, new decor and sit-down service.

Charlie and Roxane Dorzweiler chose to leave Big Creek Crossing for the opportunity to build an expanded kitchen at 110 W. 11th.

Charlie has added a line of barbecue smoked over fruit wood. Smoked sirloin is his speciality. The restaurant is also hoping to offer a smoked prime rib on Friday and Saturday nights. He makes two house barbecue sauces, a regular and apple, and has added homemade apple brats to the menu.

The restaurant will continue to offer Volga German favorites, such as bierocks, green bean dumpling soup, schnitzel, spaetzel, sauerbraten and maultasche.

The new Das Essen Hutte location offers expanded seating and sit-down service.

For the unfamiliar sauerbraten is a German roast, and maultasche is a noodle dough stuffed with a cheese or meat filling that can be boiled, baked or fried. Spaetzel are fried dumplings.

The restaurant bakes all of its own bread from scratch. Bread can be purchased by the loaf. Charlie said the rye has been especially popular.

Whereas Das Essen Hutte’s location at Big Creek Crossing was almost fast food — order at the counter — the new location offers sit-down service with wait staff.

The establishment is also selling 3-2 beer.

The design focal point of the restaurant is an authentic solid-wood Brunswick bar from the 1800s. The Dorzweilers have owned the bar and its gigantic wood-trimmed mirror for years.

A photo of Lee and Mary Dorzweiler, Charlie Dorzweiler’s grandparents, hangs in the new Das Essen Hutte location.

The Dorzweilers have been working on the new space since January, but only opened their doors on April 3. They are still working on some of their wall decor. They’re focusing on local history. In addition to the restaurant, Charlie still works the family farm just outside of Catherine. It has been in the family for four generations,

Balthazar and Mary Dorzweiler settled in the Catherine area in the 1800s. Charlie Dorzweiler, their great-grandson, still works their farm today. He hopes to use vegetables grown on the farm at his restaurant, Das Essen Hutte.

To honor that history, Charlie enlarged and mounted a number of early farm and family photos, including photos of his grandparents, Lee and Mary Dorzweiler, and great-grandparents, Balthazar and Mary Dorzweiler, who settled in this area in the 1800s. Vegetables grown on the farm will likely be used in the restaurant this summer.

The family is working on a display of photos from his wife Roxane’s family. Her maiden name was Schmidt, and her family’s farm was about two miles from the Dorzweilers’.

Charlie has reserved another wall for historic military photos.

The new location is open 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesdays through Thursdays, 11 a.m. to midnight Fridays and Saturdays and 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sundays. The restaurant does to-go orders and will continue to cater.

Charlie said he and his wife are looking forward to being downtown and hopes Das Essen Hutte will be another draw to bring people into Hays and onto the bricks. They have already had good reception with customers from as far away as Wichita stopping in to sample the German fare.