Even though my last name is Armenian, my Mother was German and I remember as a child that my Father would once a year take my Mother to her favorite restaurant way on the east side of Detroit The Little Café.  There were several other German restaurants in Detroit, especially when I was a child, but she always wanted to go there.  That was always her Mother’s Day gift.  My Mother died when I was a freshman at Cass Technical High School in Detroit, so those memories have diminished.

A couple of years after I graduated from college I had a chance to dine there once again and I am glad that I did since they are no longer around.  Since my Mother did not cook German dishes at home, I had to wing it at the restaurant and go with safe sounding dishes and they were excellent as I remember.  I remember having Wiener schnitzel, and sausage and cabbage.  I also remember having a Black Forest Torte cake, but beyond that, I cannot recall the any other dishes.  I do remember that I and my friends all left fully sated and happy.

I have the two wine labels from that evening; they are both from the same district in the Mosel-Saar-Ruwer area of Germany.  Actually they are both Bernkasteler Schlossberg wines, both with Pradikat from Riesling grapes.  One is a Spatlese, while the other is an Auslese designation, and that was the order that we drank them.  A Pradikat designation means that no sugar has been added to the wines.  Spatlese refers to a later harvesting of grapes, so that they may be even more concentrated with natural sugar.  Auslese can actually be harvested at the same time as the Spatlese but put in a separate container, because the grapes show an even more ripe condition.  My memory of the wines is a bit sketchy, though we all enjoyed the wines; the Auslese was sweeter and fuller but paired well with the dinner, as well as with the good fun with the friends.