Grumbling About Glockenspiel

I don’t usually criticize restaurants on the basis of a single visit, but in the case of my recent outing to Glockenspiel, I am willing to make an exception. From past visits, I remembered the Bavarian restaurant in St. Paul’s historic CSPS Hall as serving possibly the best German food in the Twin Cities. This time around, the setting was as charming as ever, but the kitchen badly missed the mark. My companion ordered Schweinebraten (roast pork)and I ordered Sauerbraten (marinated beef roast). The meats were adequate, but everything else was badly off the mark: instead of a crusty rye bread, the bread basket was filled with two-tone marbled soft-crusted supermarket bread – sort of like WonderBread with food coloring added. The spaetzle were mushy. The red cabbage was flavorless. And no self-respecting German restaurant would serve a vegetable medley of yellow squash, zucchini, and crinkle-cut carrot slices.