SerpApi.Org
If you called patrons of Bavarian Grill customers, owner Juergen Mahneke would have been the first to correct you.
"It's always guests and friends," said his wife, Heather Mahneke.
Juergen treated his restaurant and guests with seriousness, respect and hospitality every day for nearly 33 years - almost half his life. In June, he died at the age of 67 after suffering a fall.
The loss was felt both by Juergen's family and longtime employees as well as guests of Bavarian Grill, which has become one of the most well-known spots for German food and beer in North Texas since opening in Plano in November 1993.
For Juergen, Bavarian Grill meant the world. For many others, it meant friends, community, good beer, family-style dinners, charity and more. All those things will continue, Heather said - for the community the restaurant sustains, for the staff, for Juergen himself.
Building Bavarian Grill
Juergen Mahneke was born in Braunschweig, a city in north-central Germany, in 1958. He was a top student in a German hotel school, where he met his future wife, Elke. He came to the United States in his mid-20s to study hospitality at Cornell University and started working at a Westin Hotel in Atlanta soon afterward.
He and Elke eventually wound up in Plano for work in 1989, but Juergen wanted a place he could call his own - somewhere with a soul - said his son, Christian.
It wasn't easy to open a restaurant in the early 1990s. A hard worker, Juergen took night classes at Southern Methodist University's Cox School of Business to learn how to build a business. He opened the restaurant in 1993 with Elke, the other driving force behind Bavarian Grill. Elke died from cancer in 2011.
For a month, Juergen pored over German cookbooks, looking for inspiration. He updated the menu through the years. A recipe for hühnersuppe, or chicken soup, came from his mother; a pretzel-crusted bockbier schnitzel came from a family trip to Germany; and 20 sausages on a soccer ball bun were introduced during the World Cup this year.
"I grew up eating German food and when I was old enough, drinking German beer, so it's a perfect fit for me," said Cai Schmidt, 70, who met Juergen the second day Bavarian Grill was open and has been coming since. His kids grew up as Juergen's guests and are in their 30s now.
When everyone was younger, and Schmidt stayed late at the restaurant with friends, Juergen would finally join them for a beer. "He had a strict rule about not drinking while he was working," Schmidt said.
Juergen also had rules about beer served at his restaurant. It must be in the right season, in the right glassware with the brewery's name. Otherwise, Heather said, he wouldn't serve it.
If a guest finishes drinking every beer listed on a card, they are inducted into the Stein Club, founded by Juergen to give back and bring together the community. Members receive a ceramic stein hanging on a wooden trellis as well as priority and discounts to restaurant events.
Schmidt had a bar table dedicated to him after completing his 150th card, the first person to accomplish that feat. The Mahneke family jokes that Schmidt paid for college for Christian, now 29, with the beer he bought.
‘He made me feel special'
Judy Aerdts, 70, started talking to her now-husband, René Aerdts, 68, over beer and food at Bavarian Grill. They've now been married for 28 years and come every week.
Close friends and family see Juergen as caring, generous and charitable. But being German and private, he wouldn't want everyone to know that side of him, Schmidt said. A guest might still feel it when he greeted them, though a bit formally, every time they dined.
Or they might notice it through events: meetings that teach about beer and raise money for local charities. Oktoberfests and Christmas parties. Dinners where Juergen brought special three-course meals, sometimes from his childhood, and two beers to guests sitting family-style.
The Stein Club raises about $3,000 a year for charities that help the local community, said Hannah Whitehurst, the Stein Club's secretary, who moved to Dallas in 2015. The restaurant, she said, was where she and her husband first felt they could put down their roots.
Juergen was also a member and strong supporter of the Plano Sunrise Rotary, said Joyce Baumbach, 71, a longtime friend. Both she and her husband, Klaus Baumbach, 85, received a Blue Max Medal from Juergen, which recognizes outstanding contribution to Bavarian Grill's hospitality.
"The stoic, tough guy would start crying when he'd hand out a Blue Max," Heather said.
There are about 40 employees at Bavarian Grill, which can host about 470 people. About four cooks have been been there since Day 1, and about four others for over 15 years.
Every payday, Juergen shook each employee's hand, looked them in the eyes, said thank you and handed them their paycheck. He would begin with the dishwashers.
"He made me feel special," said Jose Bravo, who started at Bavarian Grill 11 years ago as a server and is now general manager. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Juergen assured everyone they were still employed.
He taught Bravo everything, from beer to keeping up with the inventory. "We are all ingrained with a little bit of him," Bravo said.
The future
Juergen didn't want his son to take over the restaurant.
An engineer, Christian has his own career, just like his father wished. But Christian will return to North Texas every month from New England, where he now lives. He'll help Heather, who will be leading the restaurant.
Heather has a background in the restaurant industry and met Juergen because of their shared love of cooking and hospitality. Their 12th wedding anniversary would have been this month.
Heather is determined to keep things the same as possible. "It will never be the same because he was him," she said. "But we are gonna keep it."
Bavarian Grill was like an older sibling to Christian. It's what his parents talked about at home. It's where he watched TV as a kid and where he worked during summer breaks. He's unsure if he'll take it over eventually, calling that an open-ended question.
But what's certain is Bavarian Grill will continue - and that Juergen opened something he could call his own.
The space is filled with his collections, from steins to puzzles, and gifts from guests, like paintings from Klaus Baumbach. Colorful trains run around the ceiling, another reminder of Juergen, who loved trains.
"This is almost like a museum," Heather said. "It's him."
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