Black Forest Mill

BFM, in its amorphous identity, seems to now be a venue. I recently saw Yacht and Washed Out perform here. There was no cover (we purchased tickets ahead of time) and I was pleased to see that getting a drink at the bar was no longer a thirty minute bartering process. Franziskaner and Optimator on tap (although no more boots?! Who ruined it for the rest of us?) and more efficient servers behind the counter were great to see.
It’s such a weird ass, unique place. I love it.

The bar is dark and the ceilings are low. The beer is strong and the music is loud. For some reason EVERY time I go here, I have a fantastic night! The live music ranges from crap to pretty good… but the vibe is always there. People are dancing, milling around, smoking out back or playing Foosball (at least they used to).
Not everyone loves this bar, but if you can make your own fun… it’s a great bar to have a session.

I am reviewing this place solely on the Saturday night dance night, Cheap Thrills. I have yet to eat here and really do want to try it out.
First off, the beer selection is awesome! I had 3 Dunkels in big barrel glasses, the price is very fair and the beer was great! The bartenders are very fast even when the bar is jam packed!
The dance/​music portion is highly disappointing. Cheap Thrills is supposed to be a combination of Shake DJ’s and Party Foul… I was excited, as I love DJ William Reed and Jared Allen. Unfortunately William never took to the decks, and I was there from 11 till 2ish. The kids who were up there played terrible trance techno type stuff that was undancable and I felt like I was at a rave in someones basement and needed a pair of glow sticks. I was really looking forward to hearing some old Shake music in the mix, it never happened. Maybe this dance night is no longer a collaboration of the two, as William never spun that night. I dunno. I should add, that my taste in music is pretty terrible. Give me some Q Lazzarus, Yaz, Motely Crue, or Prince and I am a happy girl.
I most likely wont be going back for this dance night, but I will be going back to try the food out and have a few more Dunkels

After going to Black Forest Mill, I’ve tried out a total of four German restaurants with the others being in San Francisco and San Diego. I’m not a German food expert but I have a nice variety to make some comparisons and Black Forest Mill was by far my least favorite or had a notch below in quality to what I’ve tried.
The beers were very good and were really rock solid. I can imagine many people just coming for the drinks while listening to the music during the lively evenings. I had the Rheinischer Sauerbraten which is a prime sirloin marinated in wine and vinegar for 10 days. The tenderness of the sirloin was great and you could certainly tell that they’ve marinated it for a considerable amount of time. The downfall was that they added an absurd amount of sweet & sour raisin sauce on top and it almost felt like there was just as much sauce as there was meat on the platter.
The apple red cabbage was a nice tangy sweet flavor but the spaetzle was dull and seemed like they took frozen spaetzle and just reboiled it up quickly and slopped it on the platter. Black Forest Mill had a lot of hit and miss German food experiences. If I had to go again, I would certainly try their schitzel because they had like almost 10 varieties. They were voted «Best of Phoenix German Food» in 2007 and 2008. But looks like 2009 or 2010 wasn’t in the cards.

So you’re trying to hit the Vig for happy hour, in the rain, on a Friday night, but it’s packed — what is the obvious next choice? Probably not Black Forest Mill. Somehow we ended up there, probably something to do with one of our party being particularly keen on das boot. Too bad for him, The Man says they can’t serve it anymore.
Black Forest Mill is a German bar, in case you didn’t catch the hint from the giant German Sausage Company sign on the attached store, the servers in the most ridiculous German dirndl that does not cover nay their bust nay their bottom (possibly a plus for some), and the exclusive selection of German beers. Happy hour lasts until 7 — $ 3.50 German beers. I was not thrilled by any of the beers, but I’d consider the Dunkle the best of the bunch. I did not care for the Hef. The bar food was nothing special (I did not try their full menu items). The pretzel was tasty but the beer cheese was no better than melted Kraft cheddar, edible but very uninspiring. Fries are typical, the sausage platter was actually pretty good and probably the best thing to order if you are looking for some more traditional fare. The service isn’t particularly good — our bills got mixed up, it took forever to get our fries, and you could sit at the bar with an empty glass for far too much time.
The best part of BFM was definitely the music. Where else can you see a cute old man name Bill, play fun Polka music on the accordion and keyboard? He’s a real one man band and the highlight of my night. He plays the evening show, ending before 10pm. On Friday and Saturday they have music all night. The Friday night band is great, and play soulful music/​motown and covers (note: not very German). They are actually very good and fun, and lots of people dance.
This would not be my first choice for happy hour, dinner, or a night out, but it has potential to be a lot of fun if you come with friends and order lots of beer.

I love German food and am thrilled whenever I discover a new restaurant, but I think the trick here is knowing what to order. I’m going to give four stars for gemütlichkeit (coziness), since I had a great time hanging out in the bar listening to accordion music coming from a table full of regulars. The bartender was also personable and conversational, so I stuck around after my first beer in order to quaff a second and order some grub off of the bar menu.
I was intrigued by the bratwurst sliders. I’m pretty tuned in to what decent bratwurst should taste like, since I lived in Germany for nearly three years. I’m partial to the Thüringer style, which is what I came across growing up in West Berlin, but everyone in the Phoenix area appears to favor the Nürnburger variety. The Nürnburger style is perfectly acceptable to me however, as I had eaten a delicious one on the street at the Mesa Christkindlmarkt (Christmas market) just a few days earlier.
Let me offer my comments about where Black Forest Mill got it wrong. The bratwurst sliders were served with sauerkraut which was just too darn sour. I glanced at some fellow bar diners who left their sauerkraut nearly untouched. They really need to cut back on the brininess (rinse it better before preparing or add some apples to balance it out). I don’t think this is an «American palette» issue… it really is nearly inedible. Now the bratwurst «slider» is a novel idea I applaud. But they were served on sweet dinner rolls which were soft (almost like Hawaiian bread). Not only did they get soggy sitting in some sauerkraut juice drifting over from the other side of the plate, but it was the wrong flavor and texture counterpoint to the sausage. A sturdier more rustic European-​type brötchen is what I was hoping for. And the bratwurst themselves were unremarkable. Tasted boiled… should’ve been grilled. The mustard that came with them was the standard American substitute for German mustard, Gulden’s spicy brown mustard, which isn’t bad. However, I had just shopped next door at the German Sausage Company (presumably the same owners?) and noticed they had authentic sharp German Löwensenf. I think it would’ve been a real treat if this restaurant could’ve offered some of that on the side instead.
So, call me picky if you must. But I think I know German food and, although I loved the atmosphere and the beer, I think the Black Forest Mill could step it up a bit on the food preparation. I will post an update if I return and try something here that hits the mark. The waiter kept talking up the schnitzel sampler, and the gulasch and spätzle sound awfully tempting. But again, it might just be that you have to be careful what you order.

Saturday night and I was going to turn in early (well, early for me), but this was on the way home and I’d never been so my friends easily convinced me.
I never realized this place was so hoppin’ at night. Actually, I never really noticed this place at all. There were a lot of hipster types and people with great personal style. It was very hard to differentiate between the gay guys and the straight guys. Usually, the straight guys don’t know how to dress so it’s easy to tell them apart, no offense straight guys. Can you tell that I really enjoy it when people express themselves through their clothes? Plus, it made for a fun game with my two gay companions. There was a cute guy at the end of the bar and I just couldn’t figure out who he’d be into more. I decided to go find out, but as I approached him I notice he had one of those rings in his nose like a bull would have. Maybe this is wrong, but that freaked me out and my internal voice screamed abort, abort! It’s sad how something so trivial can be a deal breaker. I’m just not into anything that hangs out with snot.
Anyway, the place is split into sections with a bar on one side and a dance floor on the other. The bar is against one wall and there is a flat screen streaming live video of the dance floor. The bartenders were really great, and might I add partially naked. I like a little eye candy with my vodka. It was also pretty cheap compared to what I’m used to paying for Kettle One. It was about $ 6 instead of $ 10. It was a weird combination of neighborhood bar meets Scottsdale dance club.
I spent most of the night in the bar, but did find myself dancing to a few songs. While surrounded by gyrating green laser beams, I spotted Mr. Nose Ring and decided that he would probably not be into me based on the way he was dancing. I really need to stop making assumptions about people. There could be a straight man out there who both knows how to dress and how to dance.
I hear they also have live bands.
I’m not sure what vibe this place gave me, but it was different than my usual scene and I liked that. It had sort of an underground, Euro hip, 1960’s parent’s basement, sneakers with dresses, member’s only jacket, ambiguous looking males, 90’s rave, and Cheers feel all combined into one. Does that help paint a picture? Did that even make sense?

We went here for dinner after friends recommended it. It was somewhat decent food and my friend got the «boot» of beer, which no matter how you drink it, is just funny. Then we were informed that the place becomes «a euro style club» at like 9 p.m. That quote alone is funny right. We didn’t stick around for the club, but something tells me is was better than the food and worse than the beer. Not going back, but fun while it lasted!

I’d never heard of this place, but when last night on Saturday hipster dance party night not knowing what to expect. Here’s the scene: a sprawling German restaurant with a dance floor (Why? I have no idea), a pool table and a maze of wood-​paneled rooms that reminded me of an Elks Lodge. Inside: about 4,000 sweaty indie rock kids «sloshed» on 25-​cent well drinks. The bar was nine deep in an effort to stock up on this «deal,» which was really a lame excuse for a non-​pour by the bartenders. When I order a gin and tonic and they use the crappiest gin in the place, I expect to at least get half a shot of alcohol. Not so. There was about four drips of gin and a swimming pool of tonic in there. I could have had 12 of them and not felt a thing. Good thing I only spent $ 1.
To be honest, I’m not sure what the draw is of this place. Perhaps I should go back when it’s in restaurant mode and eat some sausage, but the dance rock night is total lameness. Next time someone wants to hear crappy techno in an uncomfortable environment I’ll recommend this place.

Oh, mein Gott… vere to shtart?
If you vant to git tenked, kawm heeya. Mein friend ordert unt Hefeweizen end gut a long, tall gless det held a pint… DAT VAS JOOST FOOR HEEMSELV!
Der German food, I doont like so mawch. Too hivy end too mawch vid da meats. Isht too mawch fur me de brats, de schnitzels, und also de saurbraten. Isht too mawch expensif bisides. Der bawr isht too shmawll ven de peeple kawn liter awn int de nite. Dere’s no room to efin stend vithaut bawmpeen sumvawn. I VANT ROOM TO DENSE INT DIS PLESS!!!
Sree stawz only fur de beeya. Eef eet vasnt fur de beeya, I’te gif dis pless two staws fur der food. Evrywan shute kawm chick dis pless aut awn der veekends ven der heepster kinders tun diss pless into a discotek. Isht reel fawn, ya?

Didn’t go for the food, went to celebrate a birthday tradition with ‘da boot’!
This place was awesome! You felt like you were at a friends house letting loose while dancing to the live music from the awesome band.
The atmosphere was low key with cool people which we really liked.
The bar was small, but they have a big section that turns into a dance floor, with some comfy cushion I might add.
We will be back next year, so bring on ‘da boot’

I decided to try this place instead of my usual German restaurant, Haus Murphys.
First impressions. Looks like a typical German Restaurant. Long bench tables, red and white table cloths, beer mugs on tables, etc.
They put themselves down in my book once they told me they didn’t have my favorite beer, Spaten Optimator, and then my back-​up beer, Warsteiner Dunkel was also out.
The menu offered standard German fare, brats, schnitzels, saurbraten, etc.
The food is a touch over priced, the service was adequate.
I’d recommend Haus Murphy’s over this place if you don’t mind driving to Glendale.

I don’t know how anyone can hate on a place that serves beer out of a glass boot.
I have only been here once on a Friday, but I have some friends that come here on a weekly basis. They have an amazing band that plays on Friday, and it is so much fun to go, grab a drink and hang out on the dance floor.

Uhhh, Black Forest Mill blows in my unsolicited opinion. This is mostly just a review of my Octoberfest experience here.
I have been to church potlucks as a kid that were more fun than this, and I hated being dragged to church potlucks. I was there with some cool people, but they couldn’t overcome the lameness that was Black Forest Mill Octoberfest.
It was just tacky, which could be good if it wasn’t so boooooring! Long rental tables with that red and white plastic table cloth stuff stapled to them, a smattering of less than 10 geriatrics, and somebody’s screaming kids. Germany should sue this place for calling this Octoberfest. I was there on a Sunday, so maybe I missed the best of it, but I don’t really believe that. I suspect it sucked hard every day.
The swarm of bugs that attacked us while we were there was the most exciting thing going on there. I found myself wishing I was the old lady with the fast motorized chair whizzing around the place. Now that looked fun!
I’m not sure what this place is like on the regular, but I will skip Octoberfest here next year… and for many years to come.

Lived here most of my life and I’d never been inside this building before. I always meant to go — I must’ve driven past this building over 1000 times. I stopped by this afternoon just to finally check it out. They had just opened, so it was deserted.
It’s a cool building… it’s bigger than I thought it would be even though it looks huge from the outside. The décor is cool and authentic-​ish. It could use a paint job, and it’s pretty dated though. It still has a really dope layout — it just needs a makeover.
The staff was young and nice. Since I’ve only been here once, I don’t feel qualified to write a totally legit review. This will have to serve as a first impression until I go a few more times. I’d like to see it when it’s busy. The staff told me it gets pretty crowded.
This place has large glasses for beer — if I liked beer, I might be more personally excited about that. I’d definitely take a beer lover here. I had a chicken caesar salad which had way too much dressing on it (in spite of me asking for «easy on the dressing»), but which was otherwise pretty good. Next time, I’m asking for dressing on the side.
I know I should’ve tried some sort of sausage thing here, but I just wasn’t in the mood. Next time. Like I said, I’m going to revise my review after I go here a few more times. I have a good feeling about it though.

Although I am German, I do not like all German food, and rarely have I ever had any item in a German restaurant that can even approach my Oma’s cooking. Read: I’m a tough customer. Hubby wanted to try someplace new for lunch today, and handed me the recently published New Times Best of Phoenix. After thumbing through the food section, and not really seeing anything that totally jumped out at me, I suggested Black Forest Mill, their «Best German Restaurant» recipient.
The bar had a few rowdies in it at 3:00 in the afternoon, even a few in lederhosen. We were almost the only ones in the dining room, so I’m not sure why our service was so slow. We ordered beers on tap. Hubby’s dunkel (dark beer) was smooth and tasty. I had the Hefeweisen, and I’ve had better. We ordered a pretzel as an app, and it came hot, with a hot and yummy beer/​cheese dipping sauce. It was not any different than the pretzels we get at Rosie McCaffrey’s or pretty much anywhere else, besides the Old Heidelberg Bakery. I really expected something housemade rather than from the freezer.
Our lunches were both really hearty. I had the wiener schnitzel (veal patties) with lemon garnish and really good and crispy french fries, (which were definitely closer to pomme frites than regular fries). Hubby had the sausage sampler, which is really more sausage than any human should eat in one sitting. They did not bring out the same variety they had advertised on the menu, which disappointed me, since what was missing was one of my childhood favorites– weisswurst. The Knackwurst was mighty tasty, however. His sides were just adequate– boiled potatoes and caraway laden sauerkraut. They brought out a basket of bread, which contained seedless rye and pumpernickel. I’ve had better rye, but the pumpernickel was quite tasty.
All in all, it was just OK. We’ll keep looking for a German restaurant that makes something that really reminds me of home.

We went here today to watch the final game of the Euro Cup, Germany against Spain… unfortunately Spain won and Germany didn’t score any goals. I would have liked to see the crowd get out of control.
It was packed, and we found a table but couldn’t see the game and we wanted to eat… so after looking around, I found a corner that our table would fit in perfectly. We would be able to see the game and wouldn’t be blocking anyone else, and I asked if we could move and they said yes! That definitely scored points for them.
BECAUSE we missed the first half of the game!!! They had dish network and none of the channels were working! It was soooooo annoying. We ordered and ate and kept calling my mom and grandma who were giving us updates so we could update everyone else too.
We had a pretzel with beer cheese sauce and a brat burger, two bloody mary’s, crème brûlée and apple strudel. The pretzel was fantastic, perfect, and we had plenty of left over cheese sauce for dipping fries and our brat burger in! Gary really liked the brat burger, it was just okay to me. He also really liked his two bloody mary’s, I never liked them so I had a sip and drank a lot of water after that sip.
Our dessert was good. It came with real whipped cream so that was nice.
Gary is telling me from the kitchen to say the crème brûlée was not the best but it was really good, he said it was done right. He also wants to make sure everyone knows that he was very happy with the generous portion of cheese sauce. He hates it when he has left over food and no more dipping sauces.
Gary is also German so he fit right in, ha! We had been here before when it was the German Corner. His family used to travel from Gilbert just to buy the meats in the German grocery store, and today it looked it like it wasn’t there anymore. I don’t really like head cheese so I wasn’t dying to go in there… but I didn’t notice a door leading to the store anymore.
I definitely want to go back, when there is a polka band!

We went there on one of the nights they had the «Das Boot» festival so I think they were a little overwhelmed.
We had a different person seat us, bring us bread, take our order, bring our salads, fill our drinks, bring our dinners, and give us our check. Service was okay but confusing, seriously there were 6 or more people who came to out table at one time during the night.
We had two types of schnitzels and two salads, everything was very good. Spaetzel seemed a little off, drier than what I think it should be like. Ordered a side of potato salad and it was the tastiest item we had all night. Very good German beers on tap, as you might expect.
They had live music but it the place is set up a little odd so only a few tables could see the person playing the music, some tables are in the other room completely.
This place is pretty close to me so I’ll make my way back sometime soon and see what the place is like on a regular night.

The service was good.
The atmosphere was a bit loud, but there was a polka band playing not too far away from our table :)
The food was great!
The sausage sampler was excellent
The Jaegar schnitzel was DELICIOUS
The spaetzal was amazing, plentiful, and cooked al dente (just the way I like it!)
The gulash was also very good (however we all thought that the meat was a bit tough for a gulash and could have been tender-​er)
Beer selection was nice
Desserts were decidedly not German, well, some of them were.
We ordered the crème brûlée, and the Milka chocolate lava cake.
The cake was AWESOME
The crème brûlée… eh… not so much. The top wasn’t even crisp. I guess thats what we get for ordereing a French dessert at a German restaurant :)
All in all, I’d go back!

I just love me some sausage! This place has the thickest yummiest sausage in the valley! I would have given 5 stars if there bread wasnt so bad.
The seating is very comfortable. the wait staff very friendly and Hefeweizen on tap! Ach Hlle klar!