The Spring 2023 issue of Food & Dining Magazine is now available in all the familiar places: Louisville area eateries and food shops, newsstands and online.
The unique and beguiling Café Abseits in Bamberg, Germany has passed into history, its 19th century storefront filled by a startup Indian restaurant, which in itself is no bad thing even if one is more disposed toward the consumption of Kellerbier than Aloo Gobi.
During its lengthy heyday Café Abseits was a must-visit beer bar in a city filled with exceptional breweries, starting as a quintessential student hangout in 1982, then as the years passed, gradually taking on the character and interests of co-founder Gerhard Schoolman.
A fellow contrarian and beer aficionado, Schoolman spotted a profoundly under-valued niche during the late 1990s, choosing to promote amazing beers from the many small breweries dotting the countryside near Bamberg, as well as a select few produced by the Weyermann malting house’s tiny test brewery only a few blocks away.
Recently I was saddened to learn that Gerhard, who retired in 2020, had died. My sincere condolences to his family and friends.
I made his acquaintance some years back in a manner fully befitting a native Hoosier, in that when I posted on the Franconian Beer Message Board to inquire about tickets to a Brose Baskets basketball game (the German league team is now called Brose Bamberg), Gerhard quickly answered with an offer of free promotional tickets.
He was a basketball fan, and fortuitously for us, the team was kicking off a mini-dynasty of league championships and cup titles at precisely the time we first witnessed a game. Gerhard catered to the players. Once when I was savoring a Christmas seasonal Bock at Café Abseits, a strangely long shadow descended over my bar seat as a customer came forward to sign his tab. The gals behind the bar had been visibly fawning over him, but I thought nothing of it until he stood and blocked the ceiling light.
It was Tibor Pleiss, the 7’ 1” starting center for the Brose Baskets, also a member of the German national team, who had returned from a road win against Trier the night before and dropped by Abseits to polish off an enormous bowl of spaghetti and a fruit drink (alas, not beer, although slim as a rail, Pleiss could have used the pounds). He later played briefly in the NBA, and in 2023 remains active in the top Turkish...Read more
