Delicious German Village place a fine Max & Erma’s replacement
If the walls could talk at 739 S. 3rd St., they might describe how the Franklin Brewing Company built them in 1889. Those walls also could verify that Max and Erma were real people — last name Visocnik — who opened a bar-restaurant in 1958 at the aforementioned German Village address. The walls might even rap rhapsodic about the first names of the Visocniks being commemorated by the restaurant chain created there in 1972, after chaincreators Barry Zacks and Todd Barnum bought the Visocniks’ bar-restaurant.
There likely wouldn’t be much to say about the space becoming dormant in 2017, when the original Max & Erma’s closed after about six decades of service. Since March, though, when an eatery and a separate beverage business moved into the historic, well-preserved building, the walls would have plenty to chat about again — and most of it would be positive.
Vintage bricks, stained glass, Tiffany-esque lamps, Victorian-era-style photographs plus wood carved into polished wall panels and wacky sculptures — as well as an old, elaborate bar — still provide amusement throughout the roomy space.
Dining concessions now arrive courtesy of scratchcooking, inexpensive and vegan-friendly Pierogi Mountain. A little comfortfood operation that was celebrated on “Diners, Drive-ins and Dives,” Guy Fieri’s popular Food Network show — the business has another regular kitchen gig at Cafe Bourbon Street, a punk-rock dive — Pierogi Mountain sells soulful, Eastern Europeanleaning fare from a service window in fast-casual style.
The company’s pierogi, whose primary draw is a soothing, old-world-style package fashioned from an old family recipe, are a steal at $1.50 apiece. True to the eatery’s aesthetic,
The namesake dish at Pierogi Mountain at Wunderbar the mostly mashed-potatobased filling of the pierogi varies from traditional to inventive.
A good place to start is with the classic potato-andcheddar pierogi, which is very successfully built for comfort. Like all pierogi here, the plump dumpling arrives with an attractively
What: Pierogi Mountain at Wunderbar
Where: 739 S. 3rd St.
Contact: 614-420-2304, www.facebook.com/ pierogimountain
Hours: 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays, 11 a.m. to 1 a.m. Fridays and Saturdays, and 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sundays
Rating: (out of five)
Price range: $5 to $7
Ambience: The well-preserved, historic building that housed
browned side and with candy-sweet caramelized onions plus squiggles of real or vegan sour cream. Some other pierogi I recently enjoyed (expect the filling options to change often): ginger-kissed cabbage gyoza; bacon, apple and Gorgonzola; smoked gouda with asparagus; and potato, the original Max & Erma’s restaurant makes a great setting for a new, fast-casual food-service tenant and an unaffiliated bar operation.
Children’s menu: no
Reservations: no
Accessible: yes
Liquor license: full bar
Quick click: Excellent, scratchmade pierogi and sausages are the stars of a vegan-friendly eatery with traditional Eastern European roots and contemporary American accents.
sauerkraut and mushroom.
The house-made sausages are likewise terrific. In fact, if there is a better vegan sausage in town, I haven’t tried it. Meat-eaters will enjoy the regularly offered smoked-pork kielbasa, but if the pastrami sausage is
available, snap it up. All sausages, which are hefty and served with spicy mustard plus aggressive grilled sauerkraut ($5), can be made into a sandwich on a locally baked roll ($7).
Pierogi Mountain also offers a very good beef schnitzel sandwich ($6), starring meat similar to chicken-fried steak; haluski (noodles with spicy and herbforward cabbage, carrots and radishes; $6); crisp, highly recommended latkes (two for $4); an OK
salad bumped up by nuts, strawberries, lentils and millet (kasha salatka, $6); and distinct chicken paprikash ($6), which Fieri loved, that’s made with wads of noodles, a little pulled meat and loads of rich gravy fragrant with paprika. Keep an eye out for chalkboard specials, too, such as the inhalable ciderbraised pot roast ($8; served with haluski) swamped in rich-yettangy beef gravy.
Wunderbar, an unaffiliated operation, ably handles the beverage part of the service equation. Because drinks must be ordered separately at the handsome old wooden bar, it gives patrons a chance to linger over a large and ornate artifact bordered by what look like intricately carved ship figureheads.
Whether enjoying Pierogi Mountain’s rib-sticking fare with a beer from Wunderbar’s versatile little draft selection (most glasses are $6), or with a satisfying cocktail — such as the bright-yet-creamy Baja to Bangkok (with tequila, lime, kiwi, coconut milk and basil; $9) or After the Gold Rush (whiskey-spiked iced tea with lemon and honey; $9) — that visit will give patrons something interesting to talk about.