A fire in a small Baltimore County meatpacker's attic has sounded an alarm throughout the Baltimore-Washington German culinary community. As Oktoberfest gatherings loom on the fall calendar, no more fresh sausages, wursts, frankfurters and other smoked delicacies - at least for now.
"People don't always realize that we serve the German, Swiss and Austrian embassies in Washington," said Sonya Weber, the daughter of Egon Binkert, who founded Binkert's in 1964 to sell authentic meat products to those who want certain traditional Middle European foods made in a time-honored way.
Moments before the Monday morning fire broke out, head sausage maker Lothar Weber, son-in-law of the firm's founder, heard a strange noise as he blended chopped meat in an industrial food processor. He felt a sensation like a burst of wind was coming through the roof in his Golden Ring-area shop on Philadelphia Road.
Soon he, his wife and a handful of employees watched as flames worked their way through the roof and attic of the Binkert family meat products kitchen housed in a one-story brick building in a roadside shopping strip.
The shop also carries lunch meat, German-style breads from Canada, mustard and imported sauerkraut - and serves a large Washington customer base, including German-born hotel chefs with a demanding palate.
Throughout yesterday, customers - among them a ship chandler who wanted to feed a German crew on a local freighter - arrived at the shop's parking lot and talked over the situation. The owners sat under a small tent and put on a brave face.
"The fire will have an impact on us," said Steve Frazier, an owner and brewery manager of the Brewers Art, a Mount Vernon restaurant-bar.
"For the past 10 years, the [Binkert's] sausage platter has been a staple and a customer favorite. And we're out of sauerkraut, too," Frazier said. "The sausages were made traditionally, and they were always very fresh. They worked particularly well for what we are doing."
He said that while his restaurant-bar goes through nearly 20 pounds of the sausage a week, he also keeps 10 pounds of the Nurnburger bratwurst in his home freezer.
"Binkert's impresses me because it's a local, family-run business," Frazier said. "The fire has to be bad for Lothar. He keeps the place so clean and is always tending the outside garden."
By the time Baltimore County firemen had extinguished Monday's fire, soggy ceiling tiles and insulation had dropped over the salesroom and meatpacking operation.
