Lincoln Square’s German Pulse: Tradition, Toasts, and Timelessness

Walk the streets of Lincoln Square and you’ll find the German story written in shop windows, bakery cases, and the laughter spilling from the DANK Haus’s storied halls. The DANK Haus German American Cultural Center anchors the neighborhood, its 1927 walls holding a preschool that’s one of the area’s best-kept secrets - economical, immersive, and lively. Upstairs, language classes for every age keep the dialects fresh, while the library’s shelves groan with German classics, cookbooks, and fairy tales. The calendar is packed: rooftop mixers, film nights, cooking classes, and Stammtisch gatherings—all reminders that culture thrives when it’s shared, not shelved.

The DANK Haus is also a culinary crossroads. The Skyline Lounge hosts everything from weddings to beer tastings, its menu a parade of bratwurst, potato salad, and pretzels worthy of any Munich biergarten. With the legendary Chicago Brauhaus now reborn inside these walls, the oompah bands and communal singing are back, and so is the sense of belonging that only a shared table can bring.

Just a ten-minute bike ride south, the German International School Chicago (GISC) is a rising star - an IB World School growing at a rapid clip, its student body a tapestry of 37 nationalities. The new nature playground is a revelation, rivaling even the Chicago Waldorf School’s celebrated outdoor spaces, with climbing structures, gardens, and outdoor classrooms that turn recess into an adventure. Here, bilingualism is the norm, not the exception, and the school’s first IB Diploma class is just around the corner.

Lincoln Square’s German soul is perhaps most vivid at the table. Himmel’s, on Lawrence, is a sanctuary of comfort and craft. The menu is a Bavarian dream: steak tartare, Lachs toast with smoked salmon and caviar, Bayerische Platte with sausages and housemade pretzels, and a liver dumpling soup that tastes like memory itself. Main courses are hearty and honest - Champignon Rahm Schnitzel, pork medallions in creamy mushroom sauce, and Bavarian pork shank, crisp and melting. Don’t skip the housemade spätzle or the red cabbage. Himmel’s rewards patience and good company, with live music most nights and an atmosphere that feels like a long, warm hug.

Laschet’s Inn, a wood-paneled classic, is where time slows down and the menu reads like a greatest-hits of German comfort: wiener schnitzel, Thuringer sausages, mushroom goulash, crisp potato pancakes, and rouladen with spätzle. The beer list is a Teutonic tour- Lowenbrau, Jever, Spaten Optimator—served with the kind of care that makes every meal feel like Oktoberfest.

The Willow Cafe and Bistro, the newcomer that’s taken over the beloved Café Selmarie’s space, carries on the tradition of German sweets that made its predecessor a legend. You’ll still find the same flaky apple strudel, buttery bee sting cake, and delicate linzer cookies that have anchored dessert tables for generations, now with a fresh face and a renewed sense of purpose.

If you want to wear your heritage, International Fashions by Ingrid has been dressing Chicagoans in dirndls, trachten, and blouses for over 40 years. Ingrid herself is a neighborhood fixture, her shop on Lincoln and Leland a riot of color and tradition. Each garment is imported from Germany, each one a thread in the fabric of Lincoln Square’s identity—whether you’re prepping for Maifest or simply want to bring a little Old World elegance to your day.

And for those who want to bring the taste of Germany home, Gene’s Sausage Shop & Delicatessen is a wonderland. The shelves are lined with Kühne pickles, farmer’s spaetzle, imported mustards, and a chocolate aisle perfumed by Ritter Sport, Milka and Kinder. The deli counter is a parade of fresh-made schnitzel, bratwurst, and daily specialties like cabbage rolls and Hungarian goulash. The bakery case tempts with kolaczki, poppy seed cake, and rustic breads, while the rooftop biergarten is the perfect spot to savor a cold imported beer and a Bavarian pretzel. With over 40 varieties of housemade smoked meats and a rotating selection of 200+ European beers, Gene’s is both a grocery and a gathering place - a living link to the neighborhood’s roots.

Lincoln Square’s German institutions aren’t relics—they’re engines of community, places where history is lived, tasted, and worn. From the preschoolers at DANK Haus to the regulars at Laschet’s, from Ingrid’s racks of dirndls to the Willow Cafe and Bistro’s pastry case, and the bustling aisles of Gene’s, this is a neighborhood that knows how to keep its culture alive: with a full table, an open door, and a stein raised high to the past, present, and whatever comes next.