Nestlé Library
Otto Scharfes Restaurant und Cafe
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1895 Menu from Otto Scharfes Restaurant in Dresden, Germany |
In 1895 Otto Scharfes’ restaurant stood behind an ugly firewall in Dresden, Germany. In that year Otto found financial help to remodel his restaurant from a wealthy rat poison manufacturer named Friedrich Herman Illgen. In partnership with Scharfe, Illgen purchased the narrow restaurant property abutting Pirnaischen Platz (Square). Then the two set out to build the grandest building in the already grand city of Dresden (“the Florence on the Elbe”). To this end they held an architectural contest in March, 1895, to determine the design of the building.
Construction took place between 1895 and 1897. And it’s noted that Otto Scharfes’ Restaurant opened for business in the new building in December, 1897. And yet our menu dates from the middle of that construction period -- August, 1896. So it must be that the old restaurant continued to operate behind the new construction site. And, indeed, the new construction was referred to as a “kopfbau”, or newer addition to an older building.
The grandly ornamented, neo-baroque landmark, which became known as Kaiser’s Palace, ended up housing studios, stores, and office space, in addition to Otto’s restaurant. The restaurant itself occupied two stories, and included a section reserved for aristocratic diners, a section for “simple folk”, and a stage where the coffeehouse band “Ohrwuermer” (earworms) played. (The term “earworm” was slang for “memorable tune”).
The restaurant closed for good in 1920, and the building itself was destroyed in the firebombing of Dresden in February, 1945. A fuller history of the building, with pictures, is available here: http://www.starkes-dresden.de/illgen/