The German Club

Overview

The Germans and Brisbane have had a long-term relationship for as long as as our short history allows. If you thought The German Club was just some fun drinking hole for post-Gabba shenanigans, then you were wrong.

It wouldn't be right not to share this photo of the original Brisbane German Club from 1896. Boasting some bad-ass turrets, sadly this guy burnt down in the 40s. Immediately it becomes clear that despite the inclusion of beer halls, the German Club is now tragically sans turrets.

The beauty of the club is that it is one for all ages. Membership costs $5 for five years and may be the best $5 ever spent.

If you are still undecided about whether you wish to pay for membership in this worthy club, then let these words assist you: 'Brisbane's Best Pork Knuckle'. The German Club's 130+ year-old restaurant Zum Kaiser makes this claim boldly, in lights at their entrance, and there is little disputing this. If you want German pork knuckle, this is the place to go in Brisbane.

At $25.90 for a slow-roasted pork hock with fried potatoes, sauerkraut and smoked beer gravy, this is why you visit. The meal is enormous, but when else can you have an  entire pork roast, with a surface area that is almost 100% crackling, all to yourself? If you find navigating a knife around a giant hock too finicky, and you're too dainty (or well-mannered) to pick it up and gnaw the bone, then the pork belly — coal roasted with buttered parsley potatoes and braised sweet red cabbage ($24.90) — is a pretty solid second choice. Ja, das ist schmeckt lecker.

If you are not there for the pork knuckle (though it must be to accompany someone who is) there is something for you too: schnitzel (chicken, pork or veal), sauerbraten (German style beef pot roast in a red wine vinegar marinade with potato dumplings and braised sweet red cabbage), bratwurst and knackwurst with mashed potato, sauerkraut, vegetables and mustard are all warming and filling.

They have a huge selection of German beers, but consider their signatures to be the Schlösser Alt (with a dry and malty finish) and the Munich lager, Löwenbräu.

Unless you are a member of the hungry and thirsty horde that descends upon the German Club, don't bother trying to get a table after a match. The place attracts a reasonable crowd on most evenings, but it practically bursts at the seams on game days with folks streaming in from the Gabba.