On our way home from seeing Robert Plant and the SensationalSpace Shifters in Atlanta, we decided to make a short diversion north through Helen, Georgia. We’ve been to Helen
twice before with the last visit being about 10 years ago.
Helen, Georgia is located in the North Georgia Appalachian
Mountains and was once a city in decline.
In the late 1960’s a revitalization effort began recreating the town to represent
a Bavarian village. Every shop,
restaurant, and building has the same style exterior. It’s a quaint little place actually.
We arrived early and enjoyed sitting on the banks of the
Chattahoochee watching people go tubing down the river. We did that on our last trip and had a good
laugh about the water shoes I had gotten my husband. Instead of buying him proper aqua socks, I
bought him shower shoes which he dubbed “aqua flops” because they kept flopping
off his feet while we were going down the river. I always say that travel is about creating
experiences and memories and sometimes it’s the little things that you remember
most. Thanks to the aqua flops, we’ll
always remember tubing the Chattahoochee.
After walking around a bit (you can walk around all of Helen in a “bit”) and looking at
a few restaurant menus, we decided on the Hofer House for lunch. It was situated in what appeared to be a
house at one time. When you walk in they
had a meat counter with lots of fresh German style sausages on the right and a
dessert counter filled with German pastries and cakes on the left. It definitely felt cozy and not like a
typical restaurant.
I decided on the Reuben even though I really wanted a plate
of German sausages. The Reuben was their
“best seller”. The origins of the Reuben
are sketchy and it’s not a classic German dish but I do love a good Reuben. It was piled high with corned beef, the bread
nicely buttered and toasted, with a little of the sauce and kraut peeking
out. It looked like any other Reuben
sandwich. Looks can be deceiving. I took one bite and thought, “Wow”. I took another bite. And another.
And another. What was just so
good about this Reuben? So, I started
picking my sandwich apart to get to the bottom of it. The corned beef was good but nothing that
stood out. Ditto with the bread. Then the sauce. I tasted the sauce by itself. It was one of those things where I could
taste the homemade. The same with the
kraut-it was tangy but not overly sour and had a light crunch and wasn’t
soggy. That was it. The homemade sauce and kraut were the
secret. I asked our server if they made
those items at the restaurant. Yes,
indeed.
After lunch we headed home with full bellies and tasty new
memories.
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