Richmond BratHaus

I had an opportunity this weekend to try out some restaurants in advance of McHenry County Restaurant Week. We are in the midst of restaurant week season - during the dreary winter months when restaurants typically experience a little slowdown for a variety of reasons. Funds may be tight after the holidays causing diners to cut back on the costs of dining out. People are still plugging along at new year’s resolutions that often include dieting. Our brutal Chicago winter weather is unpredictable - it can sometimes surprise us with unseasonably warm temps or it can throw a Polar Vortex our way, which keeps people from going out and traveling the way they would in warmer months.

So, restaurant weeks were devised as a way to offer discounted prices or fixed price meals to draw people out to try a new restaurant or revisit an old favorite. I’m a huge fan of restaurant weeks. Chicago’s just wrapped up and there are many other areas that offer them, as well, in big cities and in outlying counties and suburbs. 

McHenry County is launching their first restaurant week in 2019 and it will run February 22 through March 3rd. Last year I was part of a media trip to McHenry County, so I got a taste then of the restaurants, inns, attractions and businesses in the area and I loved my time spent there. I was excited to be invited back by Visit McHenry County to check out some participating eateries in advance of McHenry County Restaurant Week.



When I was in the area last year we made a stop in Richmond at Anderson’s Chocolates. It’s an old-school candy shop where they’ve been making delectable confections within the same family for decades and everything is hand-dipped there in the store. I noticed that there was a Richmond BratHaus across the street - and being married to a second-generation German American, I was intrigued and hoping we could get there sometime to try it out.

We were both really impressed with the place - a great combination of modern and hip along with with classic food and beer - both local craft varieties and nice examples of authentic German brews, some that were new to us and some that we love, but rarely get to enjoy on draft, like Hofbrau. And it is situated in the charming downtown in a century-plus-old corner building with lots of cool character and gorgeously-imperfect hard wood floors.

We each got a beer flight - like we often do (more brews to add into our Untapped accounts and I love to sample as much as I can). He went for a dark beer flight of pre-selected beers - a nice mix of stouts, including a coffe-heavy barrel-aged selection from Revolution Brewing in Chicago. 

I did a custom flight of lighter beers that included a sour saison and an amber ale. Each flight comes with four five-ounce pours and they also offer a hoppy flight and a German flight. One of the beers I tried was their Haus Bier, Hammerschlagen, made by a local brewery, Scorched Earth. 

We started with some Bier Battered Cheese Curds made with white cheddar curds from Twin Rivers, Wisconsin. I’m quite the cheese curd connosuier and get them any chance I can because they are definitely in short supply in the south suburbs where I live. The closer I get to the northern border, however, the more plentiful they are. These were some of the best - probably the best - I’ve had outside of the badger state.

About this pretzel...I didn’t try it, but I had to get a picture of it. It’s the Colossal Bavarian Pretzel served with bier cheese, honey mustard and garlic sauce. My husband gets terribly embarrassed when I ask diners at other tables if I can snap a photo of their food. I just can’t help myself and I’ve never been turned down. People are always more than happy to show off their plates. The people at this table next to us even turned it around so that it could smile for me. And yes, that is a pizza pan it is sitting on. It is definitely a shareable - one that could feed more than a couple people.

So, after the cheese curds, we had a sausage sampler. It was on the starter menu, but could easily be a meal for two. It’s a plate featuring four of their specially-made sausage. It’s made from their recipe by a local sausage maker just over the Wisconsin border. The sampler included their smocked polish sausage, German-style bratwurst, Smoked bacon jalapeño cheddar wurst and portabello Swiss stuffed wurst - with a scoop of sauerkraut and some sautéed onions. Each bite was better than the last.

If you head there for the McHenry County Restaurant Week promotion, this is one of the items they are offering. You can get a Haus Sampler for Two, which comes with this sausage plate and a cupcake flight for dessert for just $20.

Even after two starters, I still wanted to try more...so we decided to split a schnitzel sandwich. Weiner schnitzel is my go-to when I visit a German place and I was happy to see it on the menu. I usually get it sans bread and douse it in lots of lemon juice, but I love a good pretzel or brioche bun, too. This one came on a nice brioche branded with their name on it with lots of pickles and lettuce - absolutely delish and perfectly paired with a Radeberger German Pilsner from my flight. As a side, I upgraded to the BratHaus Fried, which are bier bttterd tavern fries topped with sautéed onions, bier cheese and cherrywood smoked bacon crumbles. These are next-level fries. Like really...bier battered fries. Who does that? They do and they are absolutely spectacular.

And of course, even when there’s no room for dessert, I had to try both desserts - a cupcake flight from Kiera’s Confections in McHenry and German Chocolate Truffles from Anderson’s Candy Shop in Richmond. I love the collaboration between these businesses and the opportunity to try such wonderful treats from area sweet shops.

They also have live music on Saturday nights and we stayed and listened to a little bluegrass performed by Miles Over Mountains.

For more info, visit richmondbrathaus.com.





***Our trip was hosted by Visit McHenry County. I was not compensated for this post. All opinions are my own.