Longstanding Titusville restaurant is friendly, unpretentious and very German

Ah, October, when thoughts turn to autumn scenes, Halloween and, thanks to all the attention paid to all those local Oktoberfests, the true meaning of gemütlichkeit.

Thankfully, this area has its fair share of fine German restaurants, but few typify the friendly, informal spirit of the word like Pumpernickel’s, a standby in Titusville for years.

Part deli, part restaurant and part seller of imported food and drink, Pumpernickel’s very much plays its part, with the look of a chalet, complete with servers in costume and décor straight from the Old Country.

This is where North Brevardians go for breakfast, with good-sized offerings of archetypal American morning fare. This also is where they go for lunch, Pumpernickel’s probably being Titusville’s favorite server of sizeable sandwiches, soups and salads, as well as hot meals, is also relatively inexpensive. Dinner can be as red-white-and-blue as it gets as well, with pork chops, steaks and seafood dishes; all, again, reasonably priced and served with congeniality rather than formality.

Still, at its heart Pumpernickel’s is German.

Breakfast includes Bauernfrühstück, the typical farmer’s meal, a mixture of ham/bacon eggs and potatoes, and you can get a smoked pork chop a la carte. Lunch sandwiches include Westphalian ham as well as knackwurst, weisswurst and bratwurst mit kraut, and entrees include hunter-style chicken, which is topped with the traditional brown mushroom gravy and, in this case, mozzarella cheese. Chicken schnitzel is on the menu too, as is kassler ripchen, the German classic: smoked pork chops with sauerkraut and potatoes.

The dinner menu expands on the theme, with the likes of Salmon Potato Crisps and pickled herring as appetizers. Germans, especially ones from the northern part of the country from which Pumpernickel’s founder, Heie Simonsen, hails, love their seafood, and so the restaurant also serves salmon with dill cream and pan-cooked fish, Hamburg-style.

The entrees you would expect are there and they include properly pounded and breaded schnitzels that fill the plate as well as the stomach, and sauerbraten and beef rouladen as your grandmother might have made them. Desserts include pies, ice cream treats and brownies, not to mention strudels, including an apricot-marzipan variety unlike anything served in the area.

Finally, yes, meine freunde, you can wash down those fine German meals with fine German beer and wine, or domestic brews, if you prefer them. If your goal is to have a little Oktoberfest of your own at a family-owned restaurant with little pretense and lots of gemütlichkeit, Pumpernickel’s serves the purpose nicely.

Prosit!

Pumpernickel’s

Address: 2850 South Hopkins Ave. Titusville

Phone: (321) 268-5160

Hours: 2 to 8 p.m. Sundays; 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Mondays through Wednesdays; 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays

Other: Banquet facilities; take-out; breakfast and lunch buffets; imported food and wine available

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