Koln: any good pubs on Messe side of river?

bruce snipped-for-privacy@my-deja.com a écrit :

There used to be the mythical, scruffy Gaststätte Lommerzheim, aka Lommis, three minute's walk away from Köln-Deutz station, but it closed down at the end of December 2004... :o((

Oh dear? I saw this in Ron Pattisons web site and planned to visit... Any other pubs/bars at all on this side of the river? On a related point, what sort of beer do they serve in the buffet cars on Deutsche Bahn ICE trains?

Bruce

Is that the opposite side of the river from the Cathedral?

If so, there was a nice little Paeffgen pub next to the youth hostel. The Youth Hostel is at: Siegesstr. 5

The pub was directly accross the street, if I remember correctly.

It was the first Koeslch beers I tasted when I arrived in Koln, and quite possibly the best.

John

Regrettably, Ron's site is just a touch out of date here. The owner packed it in at the end of 2004. He was 74. He died a few months later, to the great sorrow of those who treasured his tavern, where all were treated equally.

Lommi certainly was a textbook example of "endearingly scruffy." See

Pils, usually "national" brands. Sometimes Erdinger Weisse.

Hmm, the only Päffgen I'm aware of is on the same side of the Rhein as the Hauptbahnhof and Dom, about a 15-20 minute walk west-ish of both, away from the river. (Checking their web site, the only address they give is Friesenstraße 64-66.) I'm not sure how much Päffgen sell to other pubs, but the actual Hausbrauerei is at the Friesenstr. address.

To the OP, it's well worth the trip across the Rhine. For my money, it's the best Kölsch there is (Malzmühle would be my second choice), and the pub itself is a wonderful old beer hall. Hop a train back across the river and then catch a tram from the Hbf, and it's not that long a journey to get there. From what I recall, there's not going to be anything special on the Messe side of the river.

-Steve

True, this was not the brewery, ... it was just a little bar that served Paeffgen. It was in 1999 when I was there, so perhaps they closed.

If you can walk across the bridge to the Cathedral, there are a lot of Koelsch bars not to far from it. I remember there was a Fruch bar parctially in the shadow if it.

John

Thanks Steve. I've visited the "tourist side" quite a few times. I was wondering if the Messe side had any pubs. I am coming from the airport and connecting with an ICE train down to Nuremberg from Messe station. If not, I'll buy a couple of bottles of koelsch and drink them on the train.

dgs a écrit :

Well put. In a city such as Cologne where every Kneipe is clean and soulless, this was pretty much the only place where one found the same whiff of humanity one finds in the best british community pubs.

Depends on the routes. I remeber having a few very nice glasses of Fürstenberg Pils between Basel and Cologne.

FYI ... a little more info on the place:

It's at Siegesstr. 18

It looks a little run down on the outside ... but the beer still tastes great!

John

snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com wrote:

Päffgen might taste great somewhere, but most certainly not here. Not any more.

As has been mentioned in this thread, that was the Gaststätte Lommerzheim, aka "Lommi." It closed for good after its last day of business, on December 31, 2004; the 74-year-old owner had been running the place for more than half a century. The owner died just a few months ago.

It was scruffy on the inside, worn on the inside, and a one of the great classic Cologne pub-restaurants, serving up Päffgen on tap and gigantic pork chops, aka "Koteletten," with french fries and onions. You didn't saunter up to the bar to order beer there; you waited until the owner - the only waiter in the joint - came by your table while he was making his rounds through the room. You had to be quick-witted, because he would stop by for just a brief pause, but of course you were there to drink Kölsch, were you not? If not, what were you doing there?

It was a treasure. It will be missed. We may not see its like ever again.

The Deutz side of the Rhein has various pubs and restaurants, but none of any great distinction - at least, not any more.

That's the main Päffgen brewery-pub, yes.

Yep. There used to be a second Päffgen place at the southern end of the Altstadt, quite close to the Heumarkt. However, the owner - a member of the family - had a falling-out, and banished Päffgen's beer from the place. In its place, he substituted his own beer, "Pfaffen," which is also the name of the place. He was going to bill it as a Kölsch, but it's not brewed within the geographic area defined by the Kölsch Konvention, so ... it's just Pfaffenbier.

However, a short walk from Pfaffen is a place that was opened up relatively recently ... serving Päffgen. Imagine that. And so the feud continues.

Those two, and the two Früh houses (am Dom and im Weedel), are about as good as it gets. Last time in Cologne, I got the impression that there was some dumbing-down of a lot of the brands. There are fewer Kölsches than there used to be - or so it seems - and too many of them taste suspiciously alike. Considering that several of them are brewed at the same plant, perhaps it's not so suspicious, but it is disappointing. Peters Brauhaus, in the Altstadt, is also a pleasant place to spend some time, although its Kölsch is among the lightest and mildest of the bunch - or so it seemed to me, anyway.

Sad to hear that it is no more.

I had one of my most enjoyable experiences in Europe there ... after arriving in Koln by train, I got out at the main station and started wondering around, looking for the hostel where I had my reservation.

After a long while, I found out the hostel was across the bridge, so I hoofed it across (carrying my backpack). It was a warm May day, and I was pretty hot by the time I found the place and checked in.

Once I dumped my backpack, I went out to look for some Koelsch, and the first place I saw was this ratty looking place across the street.

The tavern was pretty full of people, and even people spilled out onto the street.

There was a couple sitting next to their bicycle, who at first I thought were from the hostel, but on asking them, found out they were natives, and that the beer here was the best Koeslch in Koln.

Since I was really tired by a long day of travel, I had not problem with going in and drinking my first couple of Koelschs there, which I did.

The next day I spent walking around sampling the Koelsches at all the places on the opposite side of the river, but I'm not sure if any of them were as good as those first ones I had there.

Cheers, John

OP here. I had a walk around the Deutz station area...Koln FC football team were playing a game at the nearby stadium. There were a few pubs on the pedestrianised shopping street nearby, including an excellent traditional type Sion pub which was popular with local soccer fans. But, as you say, Lommis is all boarded up now.

Any comments on Reissdorf koelsch...all the soccer fans were drinking bottles of it on the way to the game. Probably because it has a red & white label = same colours as FC Koln. Bruce Bruce

Passable example of the style, and pretty much the only one from Cologne available in the USA on a regular basis. Not the worst of the bunch, and fairly widely available.

Yes decent enough beer and particularly good in the brewery tap, not a million miles from Barbarossa Platz

million miles from Barbarossa Platz <

Where is the brewery tap, exactly?

Thanks Bruce