Karl Ratzsch's

This grand restaurant has been justly famous since 1904 for its German food, served by a staff of dirndl-skirted professionals in an extremely atmospheric dining room. The old world menu includes such stalwart classics as liver-dumpling soup, roast goose, beef rouladen, and sauerbraten with ginger-snap gravy.

At first, we were a little scared by our Crackling Pork Shank, a gigantic hunk of hock that arrives with a sharp knife plunged into it. While the knife was indeed handy for sawing through the extremely crackly parts of the skin on the outside, we found fingers were well-suited for pulling large nuggets of moist meat from the interior as well as strips of crisp cracklin's from the drier parts. This is a vast eating adventure!