Everyone wants to be Irish on March 17, St. Patrick’s Day. For Germans, the ethnic adulation is less intense but lasts a whole lot longer.

To those for whom October becomes Oktober, the month has many opportunities to guzzle beer by the stein-full and tamp it all down under a mat of sauerkraut and sausage in ad hoc beir gartens. And these are not terribly inaccurate pursuits for those seeking a dose of German culture, or at least Bavarian culture, the type most picturesque for foreign consumption.

While Bavarians do not necessarily zoom along their seamless Autobahns dressed in lederhosen all the time, excellent beer and sausage are indeed had in vast quantities and at regular intervals, like the completely normal lunch pictured above from a tavern in Regensburg.

So after our local month-long Oktoberfest wraps up at Deutsches Haus, and after the specialty German-themed menus are folded up for the year at local restaurants, remember it need not be October to revel in this hearty, comforting cuisine.

The best local purveyor of German food in the city is found in the French Quarter and run by a Czech: Jäger Haus German Bistro and Coffee Shop, reviewed back in the spring.

Curiously, the menu here is short on sausage. But the German beers are first rate, and the variety of schnitzel (think panneed meat), the potato salads (yes, more than one type is available here) and most of all the spaetzle (tiny, irregular dumplings, beautiful in gravy) give the fundamentals for a great German meal any time of year.

– Ian McNulty

After a group outing to a new restaurant, the post-game analysis begins nearly the moment the car door is closed.

On our trips to O’Brien’s Grille, reviewed in this week’s issue, the drive across the Crescent City Connection back from Gretna gave us plenty of time to talk the meal over, and on each trip the car was abuzz with praise.

Some of this surely comes from the surprise of finding a place like O’Brien’s on a stretch of swampy suburbia like Gretna’s Belle Chase Highway.

I personally consider Gretna one of the area’s most appetizing destinations, primarily for its profusion of excellent Vietnamese restaurants, including Tan Dinh, Pho Tau Bay, Kim Son and Nine Roses. There’s a good mix of Latino restaurants and comfortable stalwarts like the Beef Connection and the Red Maple dot the scene.

But I don’t normally think of Gretna for a meal with well-informed wine service, crisp table linens and prices that can reach into the upper spectrum of the local range. So the high level of polish in service, atmosphere and food at O’Brien’s was accentuated by the pleasure of discovery.

Sure, a restaurant where the best landmark is the drive-through daiquiri stand sharing its parking lot, and which looks like a fortified self-storage unit (see above), does not start out with the highest expectations.

But on each of our visits, it was clear to everyone involved that O’Brien’s can go toe-to-toe with any number of high-end places in the city’s more competitive upscale market across the river. For those who live nearby, O’Brien’s is a much-needed elegant asset close to home. For those who don’t, it’s well worth the drive for a great meal.
– Ian McNulty

After seeing the entire structure inundated with floodwater from Hurricane Ike’s storm surge, it seems incredible that Middendorf’s Restaurant is preparing to reopen on Wednesday next week.

But sure enough, owners Horst Pfeifer (pictured at left last spring) and his wife Karen announced they will resume their normal business schedule less than six weeks after all the buildings that make up their Manchac seafood landmark were flooded by four feet of lake water.

A team of volunteers helped the Pfeifers get Middendorf’s second, newer dining hall in shape to return to business, and that will reopen first. Karen says they still must decide their plan for the original building, which is a more complicated proposition because of its age. Here’s the latest, directly from Karen:

Please know that our goal is to continue with the tradition of Middendorf’s, not only the food but the ambiance and décor. Cypress wall, cypress knees, etc., etc. will all be a part of the rebuild.”

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This year marks the 80th anniversary of the founding of Deutches Haus, the German cultural organization in Mid-City. And once again this fall, its redoubtable brick headquarters and large, walled beer garden hosts the city’s largest Oktoberfest each Friday and Saturday evening through the end of the month.

But it’s not the only celebration of Bavarian culture on tap around the area this fall.

This weekend, German-born, German-trained master brewer Henryk Orlik and his Heiner Brau brewery will host their third annual Oktoberfest in downtown Covington.

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Since writing this week’s column about hot tamales, I’ve come to see these odd, spicy, greasy plugs of beef and cornmeal as something like an undercover New Orleans food obsession.

In a city famous for its food, the local derivation of hot tamales are not famous at all, yet it seems once you bring up the topic everyone has a story about them.

To get a little background on the hot tamale tradition in New Orleans, I spoke with a Mid-City neighbor who used to manage Fiesta Hot Tamales in the late 1970s and now, fittingly perhaps, works at a local cemetery.

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After last week’s news that Middendorf’s had been severely flooded by the storm surge from Hurricane Ike, some of its devotees could be heard to despair that they would never again taste the ultra-thin fried catfish like the example above that made the landmark seafood restaurant famous.

But in a recovery process that will be familiar to countless locals, the owners have had some time to assess and are now confident the restaurant will live to fry another day. Here’s the latest report from Karen Pfeifer, who along with her husband Horst has owned Middendorf’s since 2007:

“We had a big cleaning weekend, almost 40 volunteers on a last minute notice, and are on our way to a comeback. We will be reopening the brown building first, sometime in October. We have lots more work to do on the original building and will update everyone as we determine the path.”

Founded in 1934, Middendorf’s grew to two separate dining rooms and this spring the Pfeifers added a beautiful covered deck right on Pass Manchac. The deck apparently fared pretty well through the inundation. So some day soon, perhaps even as soon as October if the rebuilding schedule stays on track, we could be making the trek to Manchac again for this incomparable catfish.

- Ian McNulty

Saltwater Grill, reviewed in this week’s issue, is one of the rare restaurants in the city where you can order alligator with a straight face.

Our city is surrounded by alligator habitat, and you don’t need to paddle your pirogue or rented canoe very far in the Jean Lafitte national park on the West Bank before spotting one staring back from the green water.

But when alligator turns up on a menu, it’s usually a joke. It’s usually fried and served with a plastic container of honey mustard or something similarly strong and cloaking. So it usually tastes a lot like fried chicken bits dunked in honey mustard. The intent seems to be to have something on the menu to fuel declarations like this:

“I went down to New Orleans for a (pick one: convention/vacation/federal deposition) and had alligator at this restaurant. Alligator! Those New Orleans people eat alligator!”

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Middendorf’s,  the landmark seafood restaurant off Interstate 55 in the hamlet of Manchac, was devastated  by the storm surge from Hurricane Ike.

Karen Pfeifer, who owns Middendorf’s with her husband Horst, says the restaurant’s two buildings and their own adjacent home took four feet of floodwater. She says the entire town of Manchac succumbed to flooding.

“No one thought it would be this bad. We had people over here who have lived in Manchac for 75 years and they say they never saw anything like this,” says Pfeifer.

Middendorf’s has its own private levee and heavy duty pumps, which kept the restaurant  dry and relatively unscathed during hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005. As water from Lake Pontchartrain began to rise on the Ike storm surge on Thursday, however, the Pfeifers and their Manchac neighbors began a long struggle to protect their properties, sandbagging and trying to shore up the levee.

“But by 2 a.m., Horst told me we better pack up and get out of here, that it looked like the battle was lost,” says Karen Pfeifer.

With the floodwater gone and the muck left behind still caking the historic restaurant, the Pfeifers are unsure what they will do.

Founded in 1934, Middendorf’s has long been known for its razor-thin fried catfish and the rustic feel of its large dining rooms. Its location between New Orleans and Baton Rouge made it a cherished meeting spot for families and friends spread out across the region. On weekend evenings, it was common to find a line snaking from the front door as customers waited for tables.

The Pfeifers bought Middendorf’s from its original family owners in 2007. They previously owned the French Quarter restaurant Bella Luna, where Horst’s cooking and a rare, panoramic view of the Mississippi River made it a popular destination for fine dining and romantic occasions. That building, part of the French Market, was damaged by wind and rain during Hurricane Katrina and by looters afterward and it never reopened. The Pfeifers also own the Foundry, an events hall in the Warehouse District.
– Ian McNulty

“Unlike politicians, however, food unites with complete sincerity. It harbors no ulterior motives; its power is irreversible. Red beans and rice is my best example.”
- Sara Roahen, from “Gumbo Tales: Finding My Place at the New Orleans Table”

A native of Wisconsin, Sara Roahen had a unique vantage from which to learn about the intertwining of food, family, friendship, business, ethnic identity, history and personal politics in New Orleans as restaurant critic for Gambit Weekly from 2000 to 2005.
Her explorations around the region, her research into the creation and development of iconic recipes and the personalities of her food-obsessed friends gave her plenty of material outside of the standard weekly restaurant critique, however, and this she poured into her memoir, “Gumbo Tales,” published around Mardi Gras time this year.

Each chapter corresponds with a specific New Orleans food item, like red beans, or a drink, like the Sazerac, but this book is no mere catalog of our favorite things.  Rather, the food and drink set the scene for lively storytelling that gives readers a richer sense of how our everyday culinary traditions came about, their diversity in practice today and how the discussions born from both their commonalities and differences help bind our community together. It may be hard to get two New Orleans cooks to agree on a gumbo preparation, after all, but most of them will agree the spectrum of recipes help build a defining sense of home.

The book’s perspective is intensely personal, and therefore also more memorable and meaningful than the many cookbook histories of New Orleans food.  There are no recipes included, but reading it will make you want to eat, and even cook, something local right away.

Ms. Roahen will give a reading from her book and even provide samples of her own red beans and rice this Sunday, Sept. 14, at the Southern Food & Beverage Museum.
The event begins at 2 p.m. Admission is $10 and includes the exhibits of both the Southern Food & Beverage Museum and the Museum of the American Cocktail.

- Ian McNulty

Back Story

Uptown is home to a pair of restaurants that trace their roots from Cartegena on Colombia’s Caribbean coast to New Orleans, via Kenner.

Baru Bistro & Tapas is run by Edgar Caro while the other, West Indies, is run by his uncle, Hernan Caro. Both men worked together at their original family restaurant, Baru Café, which was open in Kenner from 2006 until late last year. Edgar left the business and opened his own restaurant on Magazine Street in April 2007, using the Baru name and a menu that was initially very similar to the Kenner restaurant. The original Baru is now closed and Hernan also moved Uptown, opening West Indies on St. Charles Avenue.

For diners, this family business rift translates as two restaurants serving Colombian Caribbean cuisine within two miles of each other. Baru was reviewed in Gambit’s Sept. 2 issue and West Indies is reviewed in this week’s issue. What follows is a head-to-head breakdown of how these two rival Colombian restaurants compare.

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