Let this Pennsylvania village transport you to Germany, no passport required

NEW YORK (TND) — A little while ago, I opened a nearly untouched cabinet in a spare room at my parents’ house, and there it was — an antique cast iron piggy bank that I had gifted my mom a few Christmases back.

Ever since then, I’ve altered my approach to holiday gift giving. For my parents, I plan a weekend away, sure to leave them with plenty of priceless memories that can’t be returned to the store or stashed away in some random drawer. And the fact that I, too, get a vacation out of it offsets the considerable price difference of an Airbnb versus a practical sweater for my dad and a vintage knick-knack for my mom.

The destination is revealed via a handmade brochure: a guide to Railroad, Pennsylvania with plans to ride a historic diesel locomotive along the Northern Central Railway, or an invitation to stay in a restored 18th-century stone house in New Jersey. In 2022, the brochure’s cover showed a storybook Bavarian-style village with fachwerk, or half-timbered, houses and cobblestone walkways.

“Germany?” you might ask.

To which I’d reply: Do you really think I’d jump from antique piggy banks and sweaters to round-trip airfare to Europe? Not likely, unless I had discovered profound inspiration (or a winning lottery ticket) in a piggy bank of my own.

But Stoudtburg Village, a mere hour-and-a-half drive from my parents’ house, is easy enough to confuse with a medieval German town, with some suspension of disbelief.

If Bavaria’s renowned Rothenburg ob der Tauber is too far for a weekend jaunt, Stoudtburg Village’s muted rainbow houses with their steeply pitched red roofs will fill in just fine. Pennsylvania Dutch County’s answer to Old World charm is modeled after the iconic tourist destination, right down to the centerpiece fountain (though Rothenburg’s depiction of St. George the dragon slayer has been replaced by Peaches the nymph for the stateside interpretation).

Of course, Rothenburg’s appeal goes beyond just the aesthetic. Tourists crowd the cobblestone streets not only in search of scenic backdrops, although there are plenty, but also for the chance to travel back in time. As one of Europe’s most well-preserved medieval towns, Rothenburg ob der Tauber is a portal to the past with a rich history, from its designation as a free imperial city in 1274 to the incredible tale of a 17th-century mayor who protected the village during the Thirty Years’ War by accepting a challenge to drink 3.25 liters of wine in one go.

Stoudtburg Village, only dating back to 1996, has none of that history. But it does come with its own charming backstory.

In 1962, Ed Stoudt opened Stoudt’s Kountry Kitchen in Adamstown, Pennsylvania. When the savvy Stoudt — only 20-something at the time but taught well by his restaurateur parents — noticed how many steaks he was selling, he rebranded as Stoudts Black Angus Restaurant, moved into the property’s basement, and worked 100-hour weeks hand-trimming each and every steak.

One day, a young kindergarten teacher named Carol Texter walked into the Black Angus for the first time. Stoudt bought her an apricot sour.

From one fateful cocktail came a romance that, funnily enough, is far more wrapped up in beer. On the Stoudts’ honeymoon in Germany, Carol fell in love again — with a pilsner at Augustiner-Bräu that took a captivating seven minutes to pour into an elongated glass. Five kids later, and she’d go on to become the first female brewmaster since Prohibition.

It was partly due to a technicality that Carol Stoudt led the charge for Stoudts Brewing Company in 1987 — Pennsylvania law prohibited brewpubs at the time, meaning Ed, as owner of the Black Angus and its adjoining beer garden, could not manufacture beer to be sold on the premises.

But Carol was the right woman for the job.

At the helm of the microbrewery, she took her zeal for German beers and ran with it. No matter that imported hops from Germany and what was then Czechoslovakia cost an arm and a leg compared to domestic options; her products would follow the Reinheitsgebot tradition with only four ingredients — barley malt, hops, yeast, and water — from superb sources. For the yeast, Carol traveled to Bavaria, where she chose from the comprehensive Weihenstephan yeast bank in Freising. It all came together with gemütlichkeit, the German concept of “like-minded people having a great time together,” as Carol put it.

Stoudtburg would come nearly a decade later, a testament to the Stoudts’ unwavering dedication to all things German.

Steps away from the brewery where Ed Stout would play his tuba at the front of a jubilant Oktoberfest conga line, construction began on an idyllic Bavarian-style neighborhood where shop owners living directly above their storefronts could enjoy views of the village plaza or a koi pond and a true sense of gemütlichkeit with their fellow residents.

As if each Stoudtburg Village homeowner had received a handbook of German phrases upon the signing of the lease, our Airbnb hosts also promised the experience of “gemütlichkeit” (this time translated as “coziness”) in the listing’s description.

There are no hotels in Stoudtburg Village, but several of the properties are available through Airbnb and Vrbo, each with glowing reviews. Our accommodations were smack-dab in the center of the action, with a view from the kitchen window of Peaches the nymph clutching a magnificent fish and the town’s tavern just beyond the cherubic fountain topper. Inside the rental, the illusion of having landed in Germany via Pennsylvania farm roads continued with details like an ornately carved throne chair, shelves of traditional beer steins, and the quintessential snapshot of Rothenburg ob der Tauber on a shower curtain.

Strolling through Stoudtburg, it’s not the accents and languages of passersby that reveal Rothenburg’s aesthetic match as an imitation — it’s the lack of passersby altogether. The actual Rothenburg, despite what a picture-perfect image suited for a postcard or shower curtain may suggest, is nearly always crowded with literal busloads of tourists lured in by the romance of gallivanting around the walled medieval town.

Stoudtburg Village is quiet. Peaceful, some may say. A ghost town, according to others.

Many reviews start out the same: “Maybe we came in the wrong season, but” Or the wrong time of day, or the wrong day of the week, or the wrong weather, as they try to steer future visitors toward smarter choices. Some finesse, it seems, is necessary to make the most of the Stoudtburg Village experience.

“Have a shop; live on top!”

That was Ed Stoudt’s vision for the village, resident Beckie Drover explained to me.

And the concept is still on display today, if not quite to the scope of Stoudt’s ambitions. Just look at Drover, a self-taught gourd artist who sells her art in a ground-level shop of her Stoudtburg Village house.

“I could be upstairs making a grilled cheese sandwich, then I hear the bell and go down,” she said. “It’s great.”

After her husband’s passing in 2019, Drover sold the home she had shared with him in Harrisonville, Pennsylvania, a 1.5-acre property with a chicken coop and an in-ground pool that required too much upkeep for her alone. She wasn’t familiar with Stoudtburg Village, but the unconventional listing caught her eye.

“First floor is currently a candy shop, but you can have your own small business here,” the description for the three-story townhouse read. Otherwise, the realtor suggested, the extra space could be used for a family room, a home gym, or an office. Zoned for both residential and commercial use, Stoudtburg Village offered flexibility.

Drover had no need for an extra family room. To her, the first floor felt like an opportunity to sell her art without having to lug around a slew of gourds from one craft show to another. In November 2020, she moved into her new home; her shop, Outta My Gourds, was ready for visitors before Christmas.

Among the Stoudts’ myriad business ventures was Stoudts Black Angus Antiques Mall, a 70,000-square-foot shopping destination that began with just 10 vendors in the basement of the Black Angus. To promote it, Ed Stoudt dubbed Adamstown “Antiques Capital, USA.”

The area’s antique malls — Angus Antiques (in the former Stoudts space), Heritage Antique Center, Mad Hatter Antique Mall, Renningers Antique Market, and Adams Antiques, among others — offer visitors the chance for an all-day shopping extravaganza. Not so for Stoudtburg Village, where the smattering of stores can provide an hour’s enjoyment, tops.

But that hour will be worth it.

Directly next to Outta My Gourd is Fire Kissed Jewelry, where jewelry designer Andrea Binetti sells handmade flamed copper earrings, intricately detailed silver pendants, and polished red dinosaur bones framed in copper or silver with pierced Tyrannosaurus rex designs on the back.

Like Drover, Binetti stumbled upon Stoudtburg Village via online listing.

“I was just fascinated by the architecture, the design, the layout, and, of course, the idea of having a shop as part of your residence,” Binetti said.

After stepping foot in the village, which she described as “very surreal, like being in the German portion of Epcot without the rides,” Binetti was sold. She moved to Stoudtburg in November of 2020 and opened her shop the following May.

From Fire Kissed Jewelry, take a couple steps, literally, to land at Plum Pudding Antiques across the street. Owners Janet Diefendorf and Tom Aylmer moved to the village nearly two decades ago and sell in their shop nearly everything but plum pudding, including an assortment of rare dolls and a large selection of vintage hats. Antiquers can continue their hunt for vintage treasures at Gallimaufry Antiques, where they’re just as likely to walk away with a 19th-century Victorian bride’s basket as they are an antique tablecloth (owner Dee Looper will give customers a lesson on caring for the latter).

At Out of This World Oddities, retired NYPD officer Joe Knedlhans stocks the shelves of his small storefront with decades-old toys and gadgets that will delight children and adults alike (my parents and I spent far too long playing with a “Grab-N-Gabs” talking elf from 2012 before purchasing it for my cousin’s kids). But the real delight of the shop comes from the display cases jam-packed with Knedlhans’ own collection of toy robots, from the immediately recognizable “Star Wars” droids to the circa-1950s Robert the Robot. Ask Knedlhans for a description of any single robot lining the shelves of the Toy Robot Museum or dangling from the ceiling, and he’ll be happy to oblige.

Equally impressive is the massive Lego train display that takes up nearly every square foot of the Little Brick Gallery, the careful work of Rich Schamus, who first set up shop in Stoudtburg two years prior. Those feeling inspired by Schamus’ masterpiece can purchase Lego bricks of their own, organized in containers by color or sold as sets.

Then, a visit to Zen Squirrel is in order for Ayurvedic skincare products, loose leaf tea, and handmade spice blends designed by a local herbalist. Stay for a yoga class with Beth Martin, who runs Zen Squirrel alongside her husband Ryke, or attend an outdoor class on the plaza in warmer weather.

That brings us back to the best time to visit Stoudtburg Village.

Warmer weather is a good idea. We spent a three-day span in late July living the faux-Bavarian lifestyle, and the village was as bustling as I’d imagine a small pocket of Adamstown, Pennsylvania can get.

Choosing a weekend helped too. Many of the shops are open from Friday to Saturday only, and no later than 4 p.m. or so. Come evening, the townspeople gather at the Village Haus Bar and Grill, staking their claim on the restaurant’s outdoor tables for an evening of live music, bratwurst sandwiches, and German beer on the plaza.

Now, I’m no food critic, nor am I a picky eater, but I wholeheartedly enjoyed my meal at the Village Haus. What stood out more, though, was the warmth of the community. We were welcomed into the empty seats at a table full of residents, and conversation with complete strangers felt as natural as catching up with old friends. Gemütlichkeit, indeed.

Currently, the Village Haus is Stoudtburg’s only restaurant, save for Village Perk and Crafts, a charming coffee shop with an assortment of pastries to quell morning cravings (owner Jimi Hawthorne is also a talented seamstress and can hem a dress or craft a custom blanket).

Once just a quick walk across the street, the Black Angus was a COVID-19 casualty, closing its doors in 2020 and never reopening. Unrelated to the pandemic, Stoudts Brewing Company halted operations that same year following Carol Stoudt’s retirement; a recent resurgence of her iconic beers in partnership with Evil Genius Beer Company is based in Philadelphia. Now, hungry visitors can instead wander over to the Columbia Kettle Works taproom, part of the IronSpire complex that took over the space.

Within the village, too, businesses have come and gone. Nearly every shop mentioned in a 2008 LancasterOnline article has since closed, from the wine shop that occupied the first floor of a purple-and-lime stucco building to the Village Sweet Shoppe that once sold chocolate covered strawberries and licorice from nine different countries. Plans for a casual Italian restaurant never panned out, and the BYOB-friendly Kaffee Prost is no more. A cupcake bakery, a bicycle shop, and a music conservatory have all shuttered.

Even Heidelberg Custom Builders, the Berks County-based building company responsible for the earliest construction, is seemingly defunct, although former president Bob Achey remains heavily involved in Stoudtburg Village — when Kaffee Prost closed in 2011, Achey swooped in and opened the Village Haus within three weeks.

There’s an ever-present promise that Stoudtburg Village will, one day, match Ed Stoudt’s lofty vision. Responses to TripAdvisor reviews have sung the same tune from 2011 (“We expect bigger and better things to come for Stoudtburg Village”) to 2018 (“It's a process, but hopefully we will get more active in the near future”).

Increased optimism came in 2016 with the involvement of Keystone Custom Homes and the subsequent construction of new buildings. Keystone’s additions were vaguer in their Bavarian inspiration than the initial Rothenburg replicas, and many forwent the option of a ground-level shop. Their higher square footage and grassy lawns proved appealing to families, bringing further vitality to the community.

Today, residents remain hopeful. They know firsthand that the village’s fairy-tale-esque appearance only scratches the surface of its true magic, and many are deeply devoted to Stoudtburg’s future success. Maybe someday soon, there will be another wine store to replace Vito Vino Wine Shop — its former home at 5 South Village Circle is for sale. And even Ed Stoudt’s plan for an inn could still come to fruition on an available lot zoned for commercial use.

Visitors, of course, are not confined to the boundaries of Stoudtburg Village, and should they exhaust their entertainment options at the shops, the surrounding area is not lacking in places of interest.

We cut our own flowers at Farm Wagon Produce Market, filling up an entire jug for just $8, and hiked in the Nolde Forest. The Green Dragon Market, an enormous Amish farmers’ market open only on Fridays, kept us busy for hours. We ate hot dogs and ice cream at Boehringer's Drive-In, just a 4-minute drive from Stoudtburg; we ate more ice cream at Sweet Ride Ice Cream in West Reading, and then again at Lapp Valley Farms Creamery. My mom led the charge from one antique store to the next (no vintage piggy banks were purchased).

In the evenings, the temperature dropped just enough for us to gather around the fireplace in our Airbnb’s living room, and we played several lively rounds of the board game Balderdash. There was that coziness our hosts had promised, and as wonderful as our full itinerary of activities had been, little could compete with the simple pleasure of quality family time.

And so go to Stoudtburg Village in the summer, and go on a Saturday or a Sunday. Go with an appetite for German food or cheesesteaks, and go with a willingness to connect with the townspeople over live music and beer. But most importantly, go with the ones you love, and you’ll soon learn that you don't have to fly all the way to Germany for a much-needed weekend of gemütlichkeit.