Old Heidelberg

Choose your weapons; pork shanks don't go down without some serious knife-and-fork action. I'd already polished off a cucumber salad ($6) in cream sauce with dill and a (big) splash of white wine vinegar, plus some pleasingly sour rye bread, when I was confronted with my massive main ($23.50). Easy to see why Old Heidelberg is a refuge for Mittel European expats; that crisp golden skin sealed in nearly endless slabs, shreds, and morsels of juicy meat.

For dessert, this night I homed in on the bienenstich ($6), a "bee hive cake" topped with thin-sliced caramelized almonds and filled with Bavarian custard, but I'll also vouch for its alter-ego, a very rich, super moist Black Forest cake ($7).

Old Heidelberg
55 Stony Hill Rd., Bethel, Connecticut
203-797-1860