We've Had More Of It This Year Than Ever
Oktoberfest And German Food
In New Orleans
For no obvious reason, Oktoberfest in New Orleans was a much bigger deal than anyone can remember this year. With two weeks to go in the namesake month, we're still hearing about restaurants that have decided to add a German menu to their usual offerings.
You would think we don't like German food in New Orleans. Until the opening of the tiny but delicious Jagerhaus a year and a half ago, we had not a single German restaurant in the metro area for over a decade. But German heritage is easy enough to find here. The Deutsches Haus, a German club that at times single-handedly kept Oktoberfest alive here, dates back to the late 1800s. Old maps of the area just upriver of New Orleans identify it as "The German Coast." Plenty of German names in the phone book.
And Kolb's, the big restaurant most people think of when they think of German food here, was a busy place on St. Charles Avenue for nearly a hundred years before it shut down in the 1990s. In case you're holding out hope for its return, the entire building has been gutted. Nothing of Kolb's remains to revive.
However, one restaurant did manage to latch onto the memory of Kolb's. When John Besh opened Lüké a couple of years ago, there were plenty of visual cues recalling Kolb's--most notably, a belt-driven ceiling fan system in the main dining room. The food at Lüké is primarily Alsatian, which is officially French these days, but clearly influenced by German cooking. And Lüké is just three blocks from where Kolb's was. Unfortunately, Lüké didn't really grab old of Oktoberfest this year, offering only a special dinner of German dishes and beer in the first week.
Maybe they didn't want to compete with the festivities across the street at the Hotel Inter-Continental. That hostelry has a tradition of Oktoberfest. It's long-time chef, Cologne-born Willy Coln, made a big deal of the festival during his long tenure there, and before that in his own Gretna restaurant. When Willy retired in 2005, Oktoberfest went with him. But they have a new chef this year: Klaus Happel, who is not only German but worked with Willy Coln during his regime. He and the hotel's management thought it was time to bring Oktoberfest back, for the first time in five years.
It only lasted a week, but it was so well received that it will almost certainly be an annual event at the Inter-Continental again. Tents and a stage were set up in the plaza in front of the hotel. Festival-style vendors sold sausages, sauerkraut, roasted suckling pig, sandwiches, desserts, beer, wine and schnapps. Helmut Fricker, a wild, funny German musician who used to come in for Willy Coln every year, was back. It was more or less the way Oktoberfest is celebrated in its home, Munich. Most of the time all the seats in all the tents were full.
That's over now, but four good Oktoberfest menus will persist until the end of the month. The biggest and best of them is at the little Jager Haus. It's a former sandwich shop made much more inviting by the new occupants, next door to Broussard's. They have a dozen or so special dishes for the season, including all the schnitzels and wursts you'd expect, plus a few offbeat dishes. And two dozen different German beers. Another nice touch: they've created a few German cocktails. The special menu starts at $14, with a $32 platter that looks like enough for at least two people. Jager Haus. French Quarter: 833 Conti 504-267-5642.
The Crescent City Brewhouse is a logical place for Oktoberfest: owner and brewmaster Wolfram Koehler is a German native. The special menu, which goes through the whole month, begins with a German-style beet salad with potatoes, Brussels sprouts, and a mustard dressing. You have a choice of three entrees: wiener schnitzel (think panneed veal), kassler rippchen (a pork chop with potato dumplings and roasted root vegetables), and pan-roasted salmon with spinach, [potatoes, and asparagus. The dessert is warm apple strudel with ice cream and fresh mint. The Oktoberfest dinner is served every night. The price ranges from $21 to $23, depending on the entree. Crescent City Brewhouse. French Quarter: 527 Decatur 504-522-0571.
Last year--with the mess from Hurricane Gustav not yet cleaned up--Horst and Karen Pfeifer thought they'd take advantage of their German heritage and that of their restaurant Middendorf's. They ran a few Oktoberfest specials. Even though Middendorf's is known for catfish and oysters, not rouladen and sauerkraut, was very popular. Now the old restaurant--both buildings--is back in full operation, and here comes the German food. It's a short menu of specials on Wednesdays and Thursdays, with the dishes changing every week, through the month of October. Middendorf’s. Exit 15 off I-55, Manchac 985-386-6666.
A restaurant named Santa Fe might also be considered an unlikely place for German food, but therein lies a story. The restaurant was founded in the Marigny by Chef Mark Hollger, full-blooded son of Deutschland. He cooked Mexican food year round. But when October came around, he celebrated with a bunch of German specials. He has long since retired and sold the restaurant, but the current owner is keeping the idea alive, in the restaurant's new Esplanade Avenue location. (It's where Gabrielle used to be.) All month long. Santa Fe. Esplanade Ridge: 3201 Esplanade Ave. 504-948-0077.
Finally, the Deutsches Haus keeps rolling right along with its Friday-and-Saturday schedule of Oktoberfest celebrations, in its old building and courtyard in Mid-City. They have over a dozen German beers on tap, plus more in bottles. Schnapps served by costumed waitresses. An oom-pah-pah band. And a varying menu of German food, cooked by the members of the club. It's family-friendly at the beginning, less so when the college crowd shows up later in the evening. Deutsche Haus. 200 S Galvez. 504-522-8014.
Jawohl! Prosit!
October 16, 2009