New restaurant owners happy to introduce 'The Angry German'

“We want to keep as much of the restaurant as consistent to what it was as Bobke’s,” new co-owner Dennis Davila said. “The hours are going to stay the same for the rest of the year; the menu’s going to stay the same.”

For 30 years local diners and out-of-towners alike have enjoyed the German and non-German offerings of Bobke’s for Lunch, but former owner Michele Bobke retired, and now the restaurant has come into new ownership.

Business partners Dennis Davila, who grew up in Sierra Vista, and Dwayne Brewton, worked together in Tucson at the Whataburger, Davila as district manager and Brewton as manager, though they were friends before that. Their strengths complement each other.

“Dennis is more of the cook,” Brewton said. “I’m more of the technical side ... the administrative, that’s more me.”

Don’t expect this to be an identical twin of Bobke’s; new owners will always bring changes.

“Officially it is called ‘The Angry German,’” Davila said. “We’re going to slowly introduce that new name over the course of the balance of the year so as not to confuse people.”

Although the pair are striving for consistency, diners might see new items on the menu.

“We’re going to start introducing a few menu items over the course of the next few weeks,” Davila said. “One of the ones that I would really like to do is curry brots. It’s like a German street food. It’s delicious! It’s often served on a fresh baked roll. Think soft bread interior, but crusty exterior. So maybe we’ll do it that way or on a pretzel roll, because that’s something that the American palette really likes as well. That will be one of the first ones we want to do.”

Look also for an expanded pastry and soup selection now and a dinner menu in the new year.

“I’ve partnered with a German chef to start building out what that menu would look like,” Davila said. “We won’t explore that until after the holidays. We want to make sure we give the team the opportunity to adjust to some of these changes, and the community the opportunity to adjust.”

Having said that, both Davila and Brewton have kept many of the original owner’s recipes, including the chicken salad recipe.

“We spent quite a bit of time with Michele (Bobke) to make sure that we could make this transition just as seamless as possible,” Davila said. “We learned all the pastry recipes, all the soup recipes and all the entrée recipes.”

“It’s the same great staff, the same great food,” Angela Nass, one of the kitchen staff, added.

In fact, the partners kept the entire staff, including Monica “Monie” Martinez, who has been on staff for 22 years and the baker for the last five years. She bakes over the weekend, creating such confections as pistachio, black forest, snow white and cheese cakes.

“Customers come for the cake,” Martinez said. “People love them...just come over and try them. You’ll love them.”

“I don’t know any better bakery,” customer Joyce Trice of Tombstone said.

Martinez is pleased for Bobke and doesn’t seem to mind her new bosses.

“We had to get used to these new guys,” she said. “They’re great guys. I still train them every day. Yesterday (one of the partners) packed up a cake, slices of cakes, and I watched him. I said, ‘No, you can’t do it like that!’ so I showed him how to do it. They have to learn because they don’t know.”

Still, every time the staff or owners serve a meal, they want to present something they can proud of.

“I see food as a very intimate experience in that it’s what brings people together,” Davila said. “It brings families together; it brings friends together...The food has to be something you take pride in; something that’s meaningful; a hearty portion, of course.

“We take pride in our food,” Nass added, “so if somebody would complain, we want to make it right. We want to make sure people leave here happy, people leave satisfied.”

“We are very excited to be a part of this community,” Davila said.

“We’re still here, please support us,” Nass said.

Find The Angry German here: https://www.restaurantji.com/az/sierra-vista/angry-german-/