Written by Franz Hofer for A Tempest in a Tankard
~Cult Classics Beyond Bamberg’s Famous Breweries~
Coming into Focus
One of the things I love about cities is how they absorb you over time. At first it’s just a passing acquaintance with the place. The main sights, the famous museums, maybe a popular café or ice cream shop. Eventually you start burrowing deeper into the layers of the city, discovering the vitality of the neighbourhoods, the offbeat cafes and taverns, the nooks and crannies that make it all tick. Like a great Gothic cathedral, the details emerge slowly, and only after several visits.
I have a similar relationship with beer towns, some of which, like Munich or Prague or Brussels, are great cities in their own right. These relationships don’t blossom overnight.
Take Bamberg, for example. I first visited in 1992 when a longtime friend and I spent the summer driving my grandma’s 1977 Reneault 5 all over Central Europe. We saw the Altes Rathaus straddling the Regnitz. We saw other things. And we went in search of Rauchbier because some guy in a Prague pub told us that it was weird.
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