Historic D-Lux Changing to German Restaurant

One of Dickson Street’s historic hang-outs was scheduled to be converted Nov. 3 to Fayetteville’s only German restaurant.

Peter Steinhart, chef and co-owner of the D-Lux Cafe, says the restaurant will be renamed Early Berlin and feature “contemporary German food.” The D-Lux had been a Dickson Street mainstay for more than half a century.

Steinhart is a native of Freiburg in the German state of Baden near that country’s border with France and Switzerland. He came to Fayetteville four years ago with his wife, Nancy Meyer, a native of Fayetteville. Steinhart lived in Los Angeles for a decade before moving to the Ozarks.

Steinhart trained as a chef for three years in Germany and two years in Switzerland.

Steinhart and his wife also own the 1936 Club, a restaurant serving “eclectic food” on the east side of building that houses the D-Lux. He says the change at the D-Lux won’t affect the ’36 Club or its menu. Steinhart says the D-Lux served basically the same food as the ’36 Club, which is a private club.

“I’ve looked around, and we’ve got a lot of ethnic restaurants in this area, but we didn’t have a German restaurant,” says Steinhart. “So I thought, let’s jump on the bandwagon with German foods and what better can I do than German.”

Early Berlin will feature such authentic German dishes as: beef roulade stuffed with onions, bacon and pickles with Bavarian cabbage and mashed potatoes ($13.50); Koningsberger klopse, poaches veal meatballs in caper sauce in a ring of rice pilaf; ($10.50) fricadellen, pork chopped stead served with cabbage, mashed potatoes and onion gravy ($9.50); and rabbit sauerbraten in pumpernickel sauce, mashed potatoes and red cabbage ($14.50). These prices are for dinner entrees. Half orders of some of these dishes will be available for lunch at lower prices.

In addition to the menu changes, Early Berlin will feature German cabaret decor and German cabaret music from the 1930s and ’40s.

Early Berlin will serve liquor by the drink and be open for brunch on Sundays (without liquor being sold that day), says Steinhart.

The D-Lux had been a restaurant and beer joint at the same location since the late 1930s, says Jim Bob Wheeler, whose father ran Jug Wheeler’s Drive-In next door. Steinhart began serving more eclectic food at the D-Lux after he purchased the business four years ago.

tttttttttt—Bill Bowden