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This is Horns’ winery restaurant in Nieder-Olm, the next village down the track.

We’ve been going there fairly regularly since 1980 when Dieter and Malu Horn converted their living room into a small restaurant and served snacks along with their own wine.

Malu cooked, Dieter served and when he wasn’t serving, he’d sit in his armchair in the corner and start snoring.

I kid you not.

When they first started, we were frequently the only customers and ordering a second glass of wine involved talking VERY LOUDLY, bumping into furniture and generally creating havoc upon which he’d wake up, snort loudly, adjust his glasses and drift over with an embarrassed smile on his face.

At one stage, the place became cult, you were lucky to get a seat and his extended family was roped in to waitress.

Then his daughter and son-in-law took over, retained the concept while tweaking it a bit in the vague direction of casual up-market countrified dining/snacking.

And at some (later) stage, they bolted on a whacking great conservatory with a view across the valley.

Did I mention that they serve herrings…?

These ones look perhaps a tad decadent for Lent, but the dressing’s sour cream, not mayonnaise.

Which makes it OK, I suppose….

20 Feb This entry was published on 20 February, 2010 at 12:00. It’s filed under Culinary, Mainz and tagged horn, nieder-olm. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.