First look: Schwaben House

A couple features from Schwaben House's menu include the maultasche and the rostbraten. (Credit: Mykal McEldowney)

Greenville’s newest German restaurant boasts cuisine so authentic, its owners were still living in Germany at the beginning of 2009.
Annette Heilmann-Ferro and Karl Heilmann, the sister-and-brother team that owns the Schwaben House, had already made plans to open a German restaurant in the Upstate, and had made a visit to the area in the fall of 2008. But their actual arrival in the area didn’t occur until Jan. 20.

Schwaben House, located at 1440 Pelham Road, opened to the public Feb. 27. It offers a taste of Southern German cuisine to the Upstate population, which includes a large German community.

The maultasche, a traditional German dish, is featured prominently on the menu. To those in the Upstate who have lived in Germany, particularly Southern Germany, the maultasche needs no explanation. But if you’re unfamiliar with the dish, it’s essentially a pasta pocket—like a big ravioli—filled with a mixture of ground meat, vegetables and bread crumbs. Karl Heilmann said the maultasche was voted the favorite dish in the South German state of Baden-Wuerttemberg.

Another featured menu item is the rostbraten, sliced roast beef served with a tasty German sauce, roasted onions, mashed potatoes and German sauerkraut.

Heilmann said the Schwaben House also plans to serve German beers and wines that complement its menu items, but specifics won’t be available until the restaurant is approved for its liquor license.

Heilmann and his sister spent 15 years in the restaurant industry in Germany, and eventually decided it was time for a big change—opening their own German restaurant in the United States.

“In the states, more people go out, per capita, than in Germany,” Heilmann said. “In Germany, you have more home-cooked meals than you have in America.”

After initially looking into the Philadelphia area, where they have family, the Heilmanns decided on Upstate South Carolina because of the significant percentage of the population with ties to Germany.

The Heilmanns said they have already met many of those folks through the Greenville and Spartanburg chapters of the German American Club of the Carolinas.

“Some of them have been here for just a couple of weeks, some of them have been here for 30 years,” Heilmann said.

He said their long-term goal is to operate a production facility for the maultaschen in conjunction with the restaurant, to make the pasta pockets available for mail order all over the country.

The Schwaben House is open for lunch, from 11 a.m.-2 p.m., and dinner, from 5-9 p.m., Mondays through Saturdays. Items on the menu run from under $10 to about $25, and the lunch menu changes, depending on what’s in season.