The Elegant Art of Dining: Bohemian San Francisco, Its ... - iMedia

As it is in Germany
When you see August (do not fail to pronounce it Owgoost) in repose you
involuntarily say, that is if you understand German, “Mir ist alles an,” which
is the German equivalent of “I should worry.” When August is in action you
immediately get a thirst that nothing but a stein of cold beer will quench.
August is the pride of the Heidelberg Inn at 35 Ellis street. All you can see
from the street as you pass around the corner from Market, is a sign and some
stairs leading down into a basement, but do not draw back just because it
is a basement restaurant, for if you do you will miss one of the very few real
Bohemian restaurants of San Francisco. Possibly our point of view will not
coincide with that of others, but while there are dozens of other Bohemian
restaurants there is but one Heidelberg Inn. Here is absolute freedom from
irksome conventionality of other people, and none of the near Bohemianism of
so many places claiming the title.
At the Heidelberg Inn one need never fear obtrusiveness on the part of other
visitors, for here everybody attends strictly to his or her own party, enjoying a
camaraderie that has all the genuine, whole-souled companionship found only
where German families are accustomed to congregate to seek relaxation from the
toil and worry of the day.
An evening spent in Heidelberg Inn is one replete with character study that
cannot be excelled anywhere in San Francisco--and this means that everybody
there is worth while as a study, from the little, bald-headed waiter, Heme, and
the big, imposing waiter, August, to the “Herr Doctor” who comes to forget
the serious surgical case that has been worrying him at the hospital. Here you
do not find obtrusive waiters brushing imaginary crumbs from your chair with
obsequious hand, nor over zealous stewards solicitous of your food’s quality. It
is all perfect because it is made perfect by good management. Here are German
families, from Grossfader and Grossmutter, down to the newest grandchild,
sitting and enjoying their beer and listening to such music as can be heard
nowhere else in San Francisco, as they eat their sandwiches of limburger, or
more dainty dishes according to their tastes.
One can almost imagine himself in one of the famous rathskellers of Old
Heidelberg--not at the Schloss, of course, for here you cannot look down on the
Weiser as it flows beneath the windows of the great wine stube on the hill. But
you have the real atmosphere, and this is enhanced by the mottoes in decoration
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