German Restaurants in Helen, Georgia

Helen has been dressed in Bavarian clothes since the early 1970s, and the restaurants have had five decades to figure out what that means on a plate. Six German or German-leaning places carry most of the load: a chef-owned dining room, a three-story beer hall, a Main Street landmark, a bakery cafe, a Czech-German cafe and a restaurant-lounge with a stein shop.

They aren't interchangeable. Use the first table to match your mood to a kitchen, then the second for addresses and hours. Helen sits at roughly 1,440 feet, so outdoor tables stay pleasant from spring well into fall.

Restaurants change hours and menus. Call ahead for anything you're building a plan around, especially in the off season.

Bodensee is named for Lake Constance, on the German-Swiss-Austrian border. Master Chef Aurel Prodan and his wife, Doina, own it. He studied hotel and restaurant management in Romania, moved to Bavaria in 1981 and to Baden-Wuerttemberg in 1990. The menu reflects that route: German classics next to goulash and roasted trout.

Lunch plates run $13 to $15, including pork schnitzel, a smoked pork chop with gypsy gravy and the house garlicwurst with sauerkraut and potato salad. At dinner, the Sauerbraten ($26) comes with red cabbage, a potato dumpling and gravy, and the Fresh Mountain Trout ($27) arrives roasted with toasted almonds and dill sauce. The Helen visitors bureau lists karaoke on Friday and Saturday nights. See the Bodensee page for the full menu.

The Heidelberg is the blue-and-white building on N Main St that most visitors photograph. Harold and Terry Link, who married in Heidelberg, Germany in 1976, opened it on July 4, 1977 as The Forge. They switched to all-German food in 1980 and renamed it Old Heidelberg. A pub, a second dining room and an outdoor terrace were added in the late 1980s, and the terrace became the Bierhimmel Konzerthalle on the top floor. The Links sold in 1997, and the present owners acquired it in 2013 and shortened the name in 2018.

Today the dining room is open Monday through Thursday 11 to 9, Friday and Saturday 11 to 10, and Sunday 11 to 9, first come, first served. The Bierhimmel hosts concerts and private events; its schedule isn't posted on the website, so check the restaurant's Facebook page. The Heidelberg page has the menu.

The Hofbrauhaus at 9001 N Main St has long been a landmark on the north end of Main Street. It was recently updated and redecorated, and the G.I. Germany Pub sits alongside the restaurant. Its Fasching party is Saturday, January 23, 2027. Details are in our Hofbrauhaus guide.

Old Bavaria Inn at 8619 N Main St is a restaurant and lounge that also sells steins and lederhosen. The visitors bureau listing doesn't include a menu or hours, so call 706-878-3729 and read the Old Bavaria Inn page.

Muller's Famous Fried Cheese Cafe is two minutes off Main Street at 60 Chattahoochee Strasse, open seven days a week from 9 AM, serving what it calls authentic German and Central European food. Order the Fried Cheese Steak (mozzarella or brie stuffed with ham), the Hungarian goulash with Czech bread dumplings or a Jaeger schnitzel under mushroom gravy. The Muller's page goes deeper.

Hofer's was started by Horst and Gerda Hofer, who came to the U.S. from Schwabach, Germany in the late 1950s and opened their first bakery in 1973. The Helen location, in the former First National Bank of White County building, now belongs to their son Ralph. Everything is baked in stone hearth ovens. See the Hofer's page.

In 1968, local businessmen gathered for a lunch to find a way out of the town's decline. Artist John Kollock, from nearby Clarkesville, suggested turning the business district into a Bavarian village and showed them watercolors of the idea. By 1972 his paintings had become buildings, and the visitors came (New Georgia Encyclopedia). Oktoberfest, which the Chamber now bills as the longest-running in the U.S., followed (Helen Chamber of Commerce).