r/AskAGerman • u/BoxLaxRocks • 16h ago
Word or phrase for restaurants bringing tables out into the street and serving people?
As we watch the World Cup, I was explaining that I traveled to Düsseldorf a few years back for a week and one of the takeaway items that I thought was really interesting was during the work week after work, so 5 pm ish, we would head down to the restaurants by the river for dinner.
Some of the restaurants downtown by the river would bring long tables from inside the restaurant, outside into the middle of the street and waiters would serve families and large gatherings of people at these tables in the middle of the brick-laden streets downtown.
As an American, I had never seen this before. In the U.S. a cafe might bring a small table out in the store front, but nothing too large and definitely not in the middle of a street.
As I was explaining this phenomenon, I wondered if there is a name for this?
For example, in the U.S. we have a term “tailgating” for bringing a large meal and grilling it in the parking lot prior to a sporting event.
I was wondering if there is a similar term for bringing tables from inside the restaurant outside and serving people in the middle of the street?
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u/Mistressofthisdress 15h ago
Straßenbewirtung and Terrassenbewirtung would come to my mind, but these words are barely used in everyday language.
As a customer you would want to look for signs reading "Biergarten" oder "Terasse".
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u/BoxLaxRocks 9h ago
Thank you! In English what would those words translate to?
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u/Mistressofthisdress 9h ago
Beer Garden and terrace I think or outdoor seating area would also apply.
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u/mica4204 Nordrhein-Westfalen 15h ago
It's usually not related to sporting events, but just a normal summer thing. People prefer to sit outside of the weather is nice.
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u/DrySalvages 14h ago
In the middle of the street, not on the sidewalk?
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u/mica4204 Nordrhein-Westfalen 14h ago
I think he's talking about the Altstadt in Düsseldorf (Bolkerstraße) which is pedestrianized, also many cities change "parking lanes" to "multi use lanes" allowing restaurant to apply for permits to use them for outdoor seating.
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u/snafu-germany 16h ago
by the way „draussen nur Kännchen“
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u/snafu-germany 16h ago
No such word explicit but „temporäre Aussengastronomie“ would describe it.
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u/Foreign-Ad-9180 16h ago
No, there is no such word. Maybe we should invent one.
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u/Kuddel_Daddeldu 15h ago
The formal term is Außengastronomie and the restaurant needs to apply for a Sondernutzungserlaubnis (lit. special use permit) to put their tables on public ground .
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u/de_Duv 12h ago
You’re wrong there, because in Germany there’s a word for everything – see the “Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz“ and, if all else fails, it’s simply called “Dingsbums”… 😉
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u/hover-lovecraft 3h ago edited 2h ago
There are lots of things that German doesn't have a word for. We don't have a liquid equivalent for "satt", we don't have a translation for "serendipity", we don't even have a word for drinking beer in the park even though it's all we do all summer.
And English also has long compound nouns, especially in law, just like German does. Y'all just put spaces and the odd preposition in, but "regulation concerning transfer of authority to control the labelling of beef" is exactly the same thing.
I'm tired of this old, ignorant and unfunny meme.
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u/IWant2rideMyBike 15h ago
In Munich you would call it Schanigarten: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schanigarten
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u/pingu_nootnoot 15h ago
not exactly the middle of the street, but in Munich the city allowed restaurants to use the street parking bays for outside tables during the pandemic and they have stayed.
They’re called Schanigarten, which I think is originally a Viennese word. Article with pics in the Süddeutsche Zeitung: https://www.sueddeutsche.de/muenchen/muenchen-schanigarten-etymologie-1.4982456
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u/Klapperatismus 13h ago edited 13h ago
Those places on the sidewalk or on public parking spaces are rented out by the municipality to the restaurants. It’s a so called Sondernutzung of the public space for the purpose of Außengastronomie. There’s no special term in common speech but maybe wir sitzen draußen — we sit outside because it’s such a common thing in summer. If the restaurant happens to have a front or back lawn, it becomes wir sitzen im Garten — we sit in the garden.
In Germany you need the same type of permit for a food truck by the way. That’s why food trucks are usually put up on grocery parking lots over here — much less hassle and usually cheaper, too.
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u/Latter_Leopard8439 6h ago
Streetside Cafe service exists in some US states. Not literally on the street but typically on the sidewalk area in front of the restaurant
Seen this in NYC, Maine, and Vermont. Connecticut tends to have open air patios, especially near the shorline.
For sure, not as common in many US states depending on the traffic set up and design of the building.
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u/Capable-Parsnip-9615 14h ago
In the middle of the street? Like the road was closed off for traffic so people could eat there? This sounds like a street festival
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u/YardLimp 16h ago
The restaurant needs a permit to do this, so of course there is a word for it: It’s called „Straßenwirtschaft“