Being Nice Provides a True First

Freiburg's old town is a lovely place, but very much a shoppers paradise. I wandered around in the afternoon prior to Ken and Amara arriving from Verona. I found a fantastic little cafe serving Italian style coffee that I now cannot remember the name of, but know just where it is so I can get back again. Ken, Amara, and I set out to find dinner and being true to who I am there were two microbreweries that I had on my list. We wandered by both and then up and around the Munster before deciding dinner could be put off no longer. The slightly less expensive of the two just wouldn't free up, a sign of clientele wanting to enjoy themselves there for a while. The second, Martinsbrau, our eventual location for dinner turned out to not be second choice, but was top notch all the way.

They were friendly and the food was excellent. The kitchen itself, which I had my back to from the table, was a stage show unto itself. The kitchen was open and visible from the dining floor so you could see all of the work the cooks were doing (just one photo came out decently in the darker lighting). They seemed to have a wonderful time doing it as well. The dinner was not too bad considering I would have felt it bad form not to try at least two of their fine beers, the export dunkel and the hefeweizen. All of this was part of a standard evening, but it was upon getting ready to leave that I can bring us back to the title of the post.

We had our coats on and I simply asked one of the hosts whether it would be ok if I took a couple of photos of the inside, including the kitchen area. He expressed more gratitude for my choice to ask rather than just snap photos than I would have considered necessary. He went on to explain that it was probably the first time that he had been asked rather than the person just assuming it was ok to do. After I took a couple of photos he walks up with a small pint of their pilsner on a tray and says this is a thank you for asking. It all had been such a simple gesture and ended up with a fantastic result. There is no doubt that I would recommend Martinsbrau to anyone and everyone based on that friendly and truly gracious end to a nice meal.