October is the month of Oktoberfest. Oktoberfest is all about beer (preferably craft). Beer is filling but needs a little accompaniment which of course has to be pretzels, or bretzels and a condiment of choice, which for me is always mustard.
Pretzels from The Modern Rotisserie. They were demolished before I could snap a photo.
My grandmother is German and she makes amazing food, but she was also a 5-6 hour plane ride away from where I grew up so most of my food Germanic food memories don’t come from her, but rather from my closer neighbors. Growing up in Waterloo, Ontario, we were lucky to have a large Mennonite population. Mennonite neighbours meant following horse and buggies through town on occasion, but more importantly it meant a fabulous farmer’s market and fond memories of Saturday morning heading to market early with my dad and getting a bretzel before ballet.
So where can you get your Oktoberfest, lye dipped, pearl salted, chewy, twisted piece of bread? Here are just a few spots.
Dine In
Bronwyn in Somerville has their Haus Bretzel ($5) with a horseradish mustard and a spicy muenster dip on their late night menu. If you are there for dinner you can order the Giant Haus Bretzel ($7) with horseradish mustard as a starter.
Newly opened in Newton, Cook has a pretzel with salt and mustard ($3) on their menu under snacks.
The Sinclair in Cambridge has pretzel bites served with honey mustard ($5) with a side of music. Not necessarily oom pah pah.
Deep Ellum serves up a choice of a single hot pretzel with mustard ($3) or two with beer cheese ($8) at brunch daily or dinner.
Oak Long Bar + Kitchen serves up warm pretzels with a Grafton cheddar cheese sauce at dinner ($8).
The Bristol Lounge at the Four Seasons Hotel has Pretzels, Sausage & Peppers on their bar menu with soft pretzels, lamb sausage, and honey mustard ($15) starting at 11:00 a.m. daily.
The Lower Depths Tap Room serves pretzels with a choice of spicy ale mustard or beer cheese dip ($4).
Harpoon Brewery wouldn’t be complete without a beer hall and your pint is made more than complete with the pretzels they serve as well with a choice of two dipping sauces ($4). In case two is not enough, and it won’t be since there are a choice of 7 dipping sauces, additional sauces are 50 cents each. The pretzels are made using spent grain from the brewhouse and Harpoon IPA is used in the dough and for boiling the pretzels. Pretzels options are salted, Parmesan, or cinnamon sugar. The Parmesan is served with a marinara dipping sauce, cinnamon sugar pretzels are served with a maple cream cheese sauce and/or a peanut butter sauce. Other sauces are spicy mustard, IPA cheese sauce, red pepper aioli, spinach dip, garlic parmesan, bacon ranch, and a 100 Barrel dipping sauce.
To Go
Swissbäkers makes pretzels of all shapes and sizes. There are rolls and baguette-shaped pretzels for sandwiches. There are twisted pretzels and straight sticks for an after school treat or a giant party pretzel twist for a class party perhaps.
The Modern Rotisserie has pretzel sticks warm at the counter. These pretzels come two ways. They are either topped with sesame seeds or parmesan and come with a nice deli mustard.
After 10:30 a.m. on weekends stop in at Clear Flour Bread for their soft German pretzels. They recommend trying them with warm mustard. I never thought about warming the mustard before. Clear Flour Bread is also having German Week from October 16th to the 23rd and you should be able to get them daily then as well as other Oktoberfest treats.
Savenors has a lunch special today served on a pretzel roll. They are always full of surprises so I highly recommend following Savenors on Facebook so you can partake in all the seasonal treats. Starting today, in Cambridge they are serving up “The Cologne”, which is a soft pretzel baguette brushed with mustard sauce (Kolsch beer, pork stock, maple syrup & shallots) then stuffed with grilled house bratwurst, sauteed cabbage and pancetta $7.99. The Cologne is available all month.
