Strewwelpeter - Sachsenhausen

Dr Heinrich Hoffman lived and worked in Frankfurt and was the author of a rather odd book of cautionary tales for young children. You know the sort of thing - 'girl plays with matches, cats get upset, girl catches fire and burns to death, cats cry' or 'boy sucks thumb, mental bloke comes in house and cuts his thumbs off to teach him a lesson' - that sort of thing!!

Strewwelpeter is the lead story in this surreal tome and concerns a boy called Peter who refuses to cut his hair or finger nails so they grow really long and he looks all scruffy and no one likes him. How that then gets a bar named after him I’m not quite sure.

Situated on the edge of Sachsenhausen, tucked away at the back of a small square Strewwelpeter is a squat, old fashioned looking pub. The interior matches it’s eccentric name as it’s decorated with a bizarre mixture of weird paintings and odd trinkets. The room forms one long sort of 'corridor' with the tables lined up accordingly. The food is cooked in a small kitchen at the far end of the bar and served through a hatch dressed up to look like a stable - I told you it was eccentric.

The food is the usual fayre, cheap and hearty and quick to appear after ordering. Not only is it quick to get cooked, it's even quicker to get to your table as I’ve never seen serving staff moving with such speed! The waitress was literally running down the bar with the plates as she was serving them. The place wasn’t particularly busy - I get the feeling that they just always serve like that.

Warm, cosy, inviting and friendly it's well worth a visit to get a taste of a real untouched German bar within a large city. There seemed to be a decent mix of locals, tourists and backpackers that lent a nice atmosphere to the place.

The only unfortunate downside was that on visiting the toilets out the back it smelt like they could really do with their drains sorting out!!