barMystery Diners · Season 5, Episode 5 · Aired February 3, 2014
Speisekammer
Alameda, California
Still open. It kept its doors open after the show.
On the show
Season 5, Episode 5 · February 3, 2014 · restaurant/bar (German)
Oktoberfest theft sting
What happened after
German restaurant/bar on Lincoln Ave, Alameda; full weekly hours currently listed, active OpenTable reservations, live weekend bands.
What happened on the show
Cindy Kahl, co-owner of an Alameda German restaurant, was hearing that the Dirndl Girls her ex-husband and business partner had hired were getting drunk and hustling for tips during Oktoberfest, while he insisted they were fine. Charles Stiles sent mystery diners Hollie and Nate in as a Dirndl Girl and a customer. As aired, one server is a model employee, but two others drink on shift, charge for free shots and pocket the difference, steal tips, and rig a drink-holding contest for their friends, while a waiter plays the divorced owners against each other. The confrontation has the ex-husband firing the two servers, who claim they were hired to party. Because Mystery Diners was later accused of scripting these reveals, this Oktoberfest sting is best read as broadcast rather than as documented event.
After the cameras left
Speisekammer is still pouring, none the worse for the episode. The German restaurant and bar on Lincoln Avenue in Alameda lists full weekly hours, active reservations and live weekend bands in our 2026 check at 2424 Lincoln Avenue. It is another established independent that appeared on a crisis show and kept right on running, its survival a matter of a going concern rather than a rescue. The Oktoberfest drama the cameras filmed made television; the biergarten itself was never in doubt.
Sources
Confidence: high. Last checked 2026-07-19.
What is there now
Street imagery via Google Maps. Location approximate.