While in the Army I spent a little over 9 years in Germany. In Germany there are gasthauses and restaurants. A gasthaus is a lot like a US bar and grill, informal and can be a bit noisy. The menu selection is limited but the food is very good. A restaurant is more refined in that you have clean linen tablecloths and cloth napkins, and the décor and atmosphere is usually very nice. They aren't noisy, and boisterous people are asked to tone it down or leave. The prices aren't cheap but not expensive either. Yes there some very expensive restaurants there but we preferred the smaller owner operated ones with limited seating capacity. My wife and I really miss that type of dining in the US. To get that here you have to go to a larger city and have to eat beans and rice for a month to make up for what you paid for that one meal. I guess there just aren't enough people looking for that kind of dining experience in the US for a restaurant like that to be able to stay in business.
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