The Museum Girls Visit a Dutch Museum and a German Restaurant

When I first moved to the East Coast, one of my greatest fears was that I wouldn't be able to make any friends. Thankfully, that wasn't the case - I've been able to make friends with a great group called "The Museum Girls" who, you guessed it, meet up periodically to check out a local museum.

Recently we met up to check out the Vander Ende Onderdonk House in Queens, and afterwards went out to eat at a delicious (and kitschy-cool) German restaurant called Zum Stammtisch. And personally, I had a lovely time. I'm happy and lucky to know these ladies and I'm way looking forward to our next meet-up!

Photo collage by Lindsey Loves History

So what exactly does an official Museum Girls meet-up entail?

The meet-ups are planned so that we can get together after work, so at 6 PM I had hightailed it all the way from Battery Park to Queens (which didn't actually take that long? For some reason I always think it's gonna take longer than it does to get to Queens) to meet my friends at the Vander Ende Onderdonk House, which is named after the two families that have "contributed architecturally" to the house, as our tour guide said.

One of the oldest Dutch farmhouses left within New York City (though not the oldest building in NYC, which I still have to get to one of these days), the house was built about 1709 by Dutch farmer Paulus Vander Ende for the Vander Ende family. The Vander Ende family had many children. Sadly, this was still the early 18th century, so they also had many slaves. The house has many Dutch features, from the Dutch doors (the upper part can be opened separately to keep animals out and small children in) to the gambrel roof.

While the house was still being constructed, the family ate their meals and slept downstairs in the cellar (which was my favourite part of the house - the museum now uses part of that space as their archives, which we got to see into). Eventually the house was completed, with an attic area where the family slept, though I imagine in the hot summer months, the cool cellar would have been more inviting! We were there after 6pm and it was still sweltering in the attic.

Some of the house - the dining room pictured at right, for example, as well as the cellar - has been restored to this 1709 appearance, with herbs hanging from the ceilings and Dutch blue-and-white tiles around the fireplace and lots of cabinets and, yes, a rifle over the fireplace. This wasn't part of New York City back then, it was still country. So a rifle probably would have been considered a prudent thing to have.

The house stayed in the Vander Ende family for all of the 18th century, all the way up to the American Revolution. During the Revolution, the house belonged to Jannetje Vander Ende, the granddaughter of Paulus. She was married to Moses Beadel, who was captured by the British during the Battle of Brooklyn. (Which I am going to a re-enactment of soon! But that's the subject of a future blog entry...)

The cellar was my favourite room, not least of which because it was cool down there

The Onderdonk family, also Dutch farmers, bought the house in the beginning of the 19th century, and owned the house for almost 100 years. When they owned the house, they made some architectural additions to the house - including adding a second chimney and fireplace - so portions are restored to look like the 1840s-1850s rather than the 1709 era. This gives the house sort of what one of my friends described as a "fun house" feel, like the two eras are two pages of a book that got stuck together. It is an interesting juxtaposition, to be sure.

After the Onderdonk family, the building fell into the hands of the city, and would have been demolished if the Greater Ridgewood Historical Society hadn't worked so hard to save it.  The historical society was founded by local residents who wanted to save the house from encroaching development, and they restored it over a period of 6 years in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

It's not only an example of Dutch farmhouse architecture, though. The building was also a prominent marker in the 1769 settlement of the boundary dispute between Bushwick in Kings County and Newtown in Queens County, and still has a boulder in its backyard called Arbitration Rock as a mark of that border dispute.

The rock - a little smaller than half a VW Beetle, and surrounded by a white picket fence and some rosebushes - was placed to settle the border dispute between Brooklyn and Queens, though since the border has changed since then to follow city streets, it's now pretty solidly in Queens. Still, it's an interesting little piece of history and a fun thing to see in addition to all the other fun things at this little house museum.

After that, everyone else was feeling pretty peckish, and German food sounded good to everyone and seemed to fit with the theme of the evening. Dutch and German are both Germanic cultures, after all. Since we had a car to use, we drove over to Zum Stammtisch, which I'd never even heard of. I love how New York City never runs out of surprises like this.

How can I possibly describe Zum Stammtisch? I guess I can begin by giving you the restaurant's "meaning of Stammtisch":

"The Stammtisch is a long lived tradition in Germany, approaching almost the status of an institution. The word comes from 'Tisch' meaning table, and 'Stamm' meaning a tribe, race, or family. Combine the two and you get regular or 'family' table. The most common activity at the Stammtisch is talking and the best qualification for membership, besides a huge capacity for alcohol, is the ability to expound incessantly, with an air of authority, on just about any theme."

I don't know how accurate that really is - as far as I know, there isn't a drop of German blood in me - but isn't that what we were there to do? Sit among like-minded ladies (each other) and just talk about whatever?

Anyway so the decor of this place is Germanic kitsch at its finest. It's a medieval German fantasy drunk on German weiss beer. It's Neuschwanstein Castle via Epcot. It's the theme park version of stepping into a Wagner opera during Oktoberfest.

I'm talking animal heads on the walls. I'm talking dark wood paneling and traditional wood carvings. I'm talking beer steins and waitresses in dirndls. I'm talking the smell of pork permeating the air while German folk songs played, singing "Ja wohl, ja wohl, ja wohl" at us as we were seated.

So basically it was perfect?

I mean we all know I love this brand of kitsch, so I'm really glad I know this place is here. It was completely delightful! The decor alone made it completely worth it, so I didn't even care what the food was like.

Except for the fact for - as cheesy as the design was (in a good way! I love love love cheesy design!) - the food was delicious? And there was a lot of it!

A friend of mine graciously shared some of her food with me, a grilled wheel of Camembert cheese served on an English muffin with a German-style cranberry sauce. It's so simple and hearty, so... well, frankly, what I think of as German in its sensibility. And yet, it was delicious!

My friends enjoyed their Kartoffelsuppe (a potato soup), Deutscher Salat (a German salad of pickles, beets, carrots, and cabbage), and Bratburger (a burger made of bratwurst) immensely. Though we were all full when we left, I'd love to go back sometime and try their desserts! (I do love Linzer Torte, and their Eier Eis - chocolate ice cream topped with verpoorten, an egg nog licquor - looks deliciously enticing!) It's pretty far out of the way but knowing it's there for when I do decide to go back is great.

All in all, the evening was great fun with both its unofficial "theme" of these Germanic cultures in New York and just the opportunity to get together with other history buffs who love museums as much as I do.

 I'm so lucky to have been a part of it and I can't wait for the next Museum Girls meetup!
-Nym-