There's a very-authentic German restaurant newly opened in North Texas. Called The Crazy German, it opened quietly on February 1 in a little shopping center at 27379 E. University Dr. in Aubrey and comes with the best credentials: The owner was born and raised in Germany.

Klaus Dausmann is a certified butcher and chef who moved from Germany to the United States in 2004.

"Ever since I moved to America, it was my dream to one day open my own German restaurant," Dausmann says. "The idea of being able to share a little bit of my culture, while in the process fulfill my dream, has always motivated and inspired me to work hard toward my goal."

The restaurant is in soft-opening mode and therefore starting with a limited menu, spotlighting sausages and schnitzels.

Sausages come in eight varieties including fine, medium coarse, smoked, with Swiss cheese, with parsley, with paprika, and a good old German-style wiener.

There are eight schnitzels including:

• Vienna style with lemon slices
• Rahmschnitzel with light brown gravy
• Jagerschnitzel with mushrooms & onions
• Paprikaschnitzel with demi-glace & bell peppers
• cordon bleu, stuffed with ham & Muenster cheese

Dausmann originally planned a much larger menu with charcuterie boards featuring salami and cold cuts, plus pretzels with mustard & cheese dip, potato pancakes with applesauce and sour cream, salads, and toasts.

"We were overwhelmed on opening night, so we'll be making some adjustments," Dausmann says. "We'll start with the dishes that people love the most, the sausages and schnitzels, and slowly add more dishes as we find our bearings."

Those will include German classics like sauerbraten, aka German pot roast; Rinderrouladen, a thinly sliced beef sirloin filled with mustard, bacon, onions, and parsley; Frikadellen aka meatloaf patties made from a mixture of ground beef and pork; and Fleischkase mit Spiegelei, consisting of German bologna topped with two sunny-side eggs.

Dausmann and his then-wife first lived in Florida, then San Antonio before relocating to Denton County.

"San Antonio was a little too busy, and I feel in love with this area," he says. "I'm in the country but close enough to a city to get everything you need."

He ran his own painting business for a few years, but noted that, although the area had strong ties to German culture, it didn't have a restaurant doing some of the German dishes he knew.

"On our first night, we had a large party of people who'd all been stationed in Germany," he says. "They said they never thought they'd be able to have this kind of food outside Germany, and that made my day."

He admits that he is the pseudonymous "crazy German."

"When I first moved here, I did things differently from local customs, and my friends would call me the crazy German," he says. "When it came time to name my restaurant, I saw that there were so many 'schnitzel houses,' and 'crazy German' sounded perfect."