“Kumme
esse”
~ Pennsylvania Dutch phrase for “Come eat”
The Deitsch Eck (Dutch Corner)
Restaurant basks in the early autumn sun on a late September afternoon on the
corner of Old Route 22 and Route 143 in Lenhartsville, Pennsylvania
The “Wilkom” (welcome) sign bids
visitors to “Kumm esse” (also spelled Kumme esse) – come eat! The classic
Pennsylvania Dutch Wilkum Home sign is often seen on porches and other entry
ways, extending a warm and friendly welcome.
The restaurant doesn’t open until 4
p.m., except for Sundays, and when I stopped by on a Saturday afternoon it was
an hour until opening, next time I’ll plan to be there when I can stop in!
Originally known as the Washington
Hotel when built in the late 1700s, the inn was destroyed by fire sometime in
1914. The late well-known hex sign painter, Johnny Ott, bought the building in
the late 1930s and ran it as a country bar, restaurant, and hotel. Many times
he could be found there in an enclosed side porch studio where he painted his
hex signs, furniture, anything he could pretty much get his hands on.
After Ott’s death in 1964, the
Peters brothers of Lenhartsville operated the hotel until hex sign artist
Donald Greth purchased it in 1966. He and his wife operated it until the middle
of June, 1971, when it was purchased by Deitsch Eck Hotel and Restaurant Inc, a
subsidiary of the PA Dutch Folk Culture Society (PADFCS), a nonprofit
organization.
The restaurant became known simply
as the Deitsch Eck (Dutch Corner). The second and third floor hotel rooms were
renovated and made into apartments
In the early 1990s there were plans
by the PADFCS to relocate the museum complex and artifacts to the Kutztown
University Heritage Center, a place that was created to keep the memories of
the PA Dutch way of life alive. The group had no intentions on continuing to
operate the restaurant, and Steve Stetzler, an area resident, former employee
of the Deitsch Eck, and graduate of Penn State’s Hotel, Restaurant, and
Institutional Management program, was asked to manage the business. In 1997 the
PADFCS sold the restaurant and apartments to Stetzler, and to this day he
remains the current chef and owner.
The
Pennsylvania Dutch are a cultural group formed by early German-speaking
immigrants to Pennsylvania and their descendants. The work “Dutch” does not
refer to Dutch people or language, but to the German settlers known as Deutsch
in standard German and Deitsch in the principal dialect they spoke, Palatine
German.
Most
emigrated to the Americas from Germany or Switzerland in the 17th
and 18th centuries. Over time, the various dialects spoken by these
immigrants fused into a unique dialect of German known as Pennsylvania German
or Pennsylvania “Dutch.” At one time, more than one third of Pennsylvania’s
population spoke this language.
Pennsylvania
Dutch specialties include Schnitz un knepp ( a dish of ham or pork shoulder
with dried apple and dumplings), apple butter, baked apple, chicken and
waffles, Chow-chow, cole slaw, corn fritters, Lebanon bologna, pork and sauerkraut,
potato filling, pot pie, fastnachts, funnel cake, funny cake, angel food cake,
whoopee pies, shoofly pie, sugar cookies, root beer and birch beer.
As
I am half Irish and half Pennsylvania German, I grew up with much of these
tasty offerings because my late grandmother was a wonderful baker and cook, and
fastnachts, shoofly pie and angel food cake were my favorites of hers.
