In Germany, sausages are ubiquitous. Not just sold on street corners, or the small food shops called imbiss, but also splayed across the landscape of language.
Crunch time is described as “Jetzt geht’s um die Wurst” (“Now it’s about the sausage.”). If you couldn’t care less about something, you might say, “Das ist mir Wurst” (“That’s sausage to me.”), and when you want someone to stop whining, you might tell that person, “Spiel nicht die beleidigte Leberwurst” (“Don’t play the sore liver sausage”).
If you’re a German abroad, it’s just possible that subliminally through all that sausage-centric language, you might feel compelled to search out your favorite wurst (sausage in German, pronounced “voorst”).
That’s what Andre Wechsler did when he moved to New York from Germany. He could not find a spot that did currywurst right, he said. So Wechsler made his move from finance to the restaurant business.
Wechsler’s restaurant is tiny—you might easily miss it walking by. That doesn’t stop regular New Yorkers or German expats from finding it. Even the most ephemeral of expats, you could say—meaning a German tourist in New York for the weekend only—has been known to drop by.
“In the beginning, I sent them away. For a weekend, come on ... ” said Wechsler, who used to offer them some alternatives around the corner.
Or maybe they couldn’t do without a taste of home.
Wechsler’s is a cozy, rustic spot, with the sounds of spoken German floating around. When it’s not rush time, you might find one very efficient staff person playing the role of host, chef, waiter, and bartender.
