Internationals At Teske’s In San Jose – June 7th
- PostEagle
- June 25, 2014
- Uncategorized
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During the summer, the Baumann family, who own and operate Teske’s Germania Restaurant in San Jose, provide polka music in the outside dining patio a couple of times each month. On June 7th the Internationals performed. The group formed in college at Chico State University over 40 years ago and learned their German music by regularly visiting Little Switzerland, the erstwhile polka hot spot in Sonoma where Al Gruber performed. Perhaps that’s where they developed their appreciation for schnapps as well. So this group, which is led by Bobby Maggiora of Italian American descent, has become the top Oktoberfest band in Northern California.
The Saturday night event was lively as usual. The daytime temperatures have been in the 90s in San Jose with evening temperatures in the 70s and 80s, making the outside patio very comfortable for an evening of song and dance. The patio itself is laid with brick with a portion of it covered over with linoleum to give a smooth surface for dancing. On this evening, like any other evening, there were young couples with kids on the dance floor and old folks (that’s us) joining in as well. The band played German, Austrian, Italian, and American music, and Mexican tunes provided by Tom Cassaza who drummed for Steve Balich for eons. The Internationals threw out an African tune for an African couple on the dance floor. And they played the chicken dance for the wee ones. After all, they are the International Band. The atmosphere is casual and the food, authentic German, is consistently good.
On this evening we celebrated the 50th wedding anniversary of Hans and Cathy Baumann, who founded Teske’s long ago, where the entire family works to provide us with the Bay Area’s finest German dining. While the “kids” do the heavy lifting in the restaurant today, Hans and Cathy greet and provide the charming atmosphere that is Teske’s.
And it wouldn’t be a celebration for Gail without Fireballs for everyone including the band, who were well into their 10th round of schnapps. Stevie McGinnis, the bassist for the band, very nicely described having a Fireball akin to throwing a handful of Red Hots into your mouth.
In photo on right: Hans & Cathy Baumann celebrate 50th