You won’t see any of the stereotypical trappings usually associated with German restaurants in America, or Germany for that matter, at Schmankerl Stub’n, a new restaurant in Downtown Orlando. No knotty pine or rough hewn timbers cross-hatched on stuccoed walls. No kegs or barrels to be rolled out. The servers don’t wear lederhosen or dirndl dresses, though they do have shoulder pouches like their Bavarian brothers, which, in Germany, are used to carry bills and coins to make change, something unnecessary here because the restaurant does not accept cash.
Instead, the decor is cool and serene, modernistic, with warm wood flooring, stylish light fixtures over booths and the bar, and bare wood tabletops decorated with white hydrangeas. And German-language radio plays in the background with pop music instead of polkas.
Schmankerl Stub’n (the name means room of delicacies) is owned by Daniel Gabor, who is also the chef. Gabor was a student at Culinary Institute of America in New York and did his externship with Ocean Prime on Sand Lake Road. He fell in love with Orlando and decided to stay.
With a tagline that reads “German scratch kitchen,” Schmankerl Stub’n is meant to present a more modern approach to German cuisine and Gabor delivers that with fine food. There hasn’t been a restaurant of this quality to open in downtown since Elize took over the Rusty Spoon space. Elize was short-lived, succumbing to the vagaries of the pandemic. Downtown still hasn’t fully recovered – Hamburger Mary cited the demographic changes when it announced it was moving – but Schmankerl Stub’n is worth your attention.
My dining companion and I started our dinner with the appetizer of obazda & brezel, a cheese dip made with brie and cream cheese, served with a house-made Bavarian style soft pretzel. The chunky/creamy spread benefitted from the chewy pretzel’s hefty grains of salt.
For my entree, I chose the dunkel bier gulasch, a moody mix of beef brisket with peppers and small chunks of potatoes in a beer-based stew. The dark beer – dunkel means dark – added chocolate and caramel characteristics to the goulash, which had lots of tender stringy meat in it.
This would be a good place to mention the prices. This generous serving of goulash was $15. A side of butterspätzle, an almost mandatory accompaniment, was an additional $5. The total was still quite reasonable. The spätzle, by the way, were clearly made from scratch and had a creamy texture and buttery taste that only needed a little salt to liven them up.
My companion had the schweine schnitzel, a tender pork cutlet delicately breaded and deftly pan fried so the golden jacket still had a nice crispness. It was served with a bit of lingonberry jam, which wasn’t really needed, though I appreciated the lemon wedge for its tangy squeeze.
Service was gracious and professional, and we were warmly greeted and thanked when we left.
Schmankerl Stub’n has an impressive list of wines, all available in 4-, 8.5- and 17-ounce pours as well as by the bottle. There are also a few premium wines poured through Coravin. And a good selection of beers, of course.
The restaurant occupies the space that for many years was Cafe Annie, a Mediterranean eatery whose falafel I used enjoy when I worked downtown. The Orlando Sentinel building is abandoned now, and many other businesses have either left or switched to remote workforces. It’s not the same downtown it used to be. But there are still reasons to go – events at the arena and shows at Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts. Whatever draws you downtown, Schmankerl Stub’n would be a nice addition to your evening.
Schmankerl Stub’n is at 131 N. Orange Ave., Suite 104, Orlando (map). It is open for lunch and dinner daily. The phone number is 321-247-5122.
