Middendorf’s opens a huge new Slidell restaurant. Can it replicate a Louisiana legend?

They know people are watching them, but that’s okay. Karen and Horst Pfeifer understand it comes with the territory when you’re in charge of a Louisiana legend.

Ever since 2007 when the couple bought Middendorf‘s Restaurant out by the water’s edge in Manchac, regulars who hold that classic old seafood house dear have been closely monitoring their stewardship of it.

More recently, all eyes of the Middendorf’s faithful have been on the Pfeifers’ latest project, creating a second Middendorf‘s, this time in Slidell on the other side of Lake Pontchartrain.

This Slidell restaurant officially opens Thursday, on the Fourth of July. That’s the same day when the original Middendorf’s opened, 85 years earlier.

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It serves the same menu as the original. That means it starts with catfish, the unquestioned house signature, sliced whisker thin and fried as crisp as chips. The New Orleans lakefront-style whole stuffed flounder, fried frog legs, seafood platters and oysters broiled with a tangy-dark barbecue sauce are all in rotation here too.

This new restaurant is huge, with room for 450 people across its dining rooms, long bar and wrap-around porch, though it’s still smaller than the original (which can now accommodate an astonishing 550 people).

The Slidell location has gone through a lengthy series of training days and trials runs leading up the July 4 opening. Staff cross-trained at the original restaurant; new hires were schooled on the habits of “Dorfers,” as Middendorf’s regulars are known.

Horst Pfeifer said a long shakedown session for the new restaurant was vital, because when people walk through the doors they will come with a full set of expectations.

“It is their restaurant, they made it was it is,” he said. “It’s more than just the food and the service. I call it the gospel of Middendorf’s. Before the busy days at the restaurant, we just say a prayer because it has a life of its own.”

Cypress roots

Middendorf’s is one of those old, odd institutions of southeast Louisiana dining that have become more than just restaurants. Its roots go back to 1934 when Manchac was all about fishing and cypress logging.

Now, Manchac is mostly about Middendorf’s. It’s a restaurant with just a handful of neighbors but with a regular and loyal following drawn from the Gulf coast and Deep South, a spot off on road trips and a destination for special outings.

The Pfeifers initially seemed like unlikely heirs to this legacy.

Horst is a native of Germany and a classically trained chef, from the realm of white toques and continental cuisine. Karen is a Kansas girl who met the chef while they were working together at a Texas resort.

Horst later became chef at Bella Luna and the couple bought it in 1995. One of the most elegant restaurants of pre-Katrina New Orleans, it was a place for truffles shaved tableside and marriage proposals with a river view. Bella Luna never reopened after Katrina. Two years later, the Pfeifers bought Middendorf’s from the descendents of its founders.

Bruce Mitchell is among those who watched the new owners arrive with apprehension. A star of the wildly popular series “Swamp People,” Mitchell has been eating at Middendorf’s since he was a kid growing up in Ponchatoula.

“We were scared, we thought they’d come in and change things,” said Mitchell, who had lunch at the new Slidell restaurant last week in his customary bib overalls and American flag bandana.

“But the thing is, they understood it. All the changes they made just made it better,” he said.

Preserving by evolving

Horst acknowledges that after a dozen years, he and Karen are still considered “the new guys” at Middendorf’s, but they find validation in customer response. They keep coming, and they have rolled with some pretty dramatic changes.

After successive hurricane and worsening floods, the couple has repaired and revamped just about every inch of the original location. In 2016, they completed a dramatic rebuild of the restaurant's original dining hall, raising it higher for sustainability on a changing Louisiana coast.

Much of what they’ve learned along the way is now built into the Slidell locations, from back-of-the-house operations to fun stuff up front.

The outdoor dining deck and sandy play area for kids proved popular at Manchac. So the new Middendorf’s has a wide, covered porch over looking a beach sand playground, complete with tiki huts, two miniature wading pools and a rinse shower.

Of course the Pfeifers predict that a second location in the same area code will siphon away some regular customers from Manchac. But with the high visibility spot off the interstate in Slidell, they are banking on making new customers.

Middendorf’s has long appealed to families on the road, and Slidell is a regional cross roads between the north shore and the south shore, between New Orleans and the Gulf Coast.

Mitchell, the “Swamp People” star, can attest to that himself. Before he was old enough to take on gators, he was tackling Middendorf’s fried catfish platters.

“Whenever the family traveled anywhere we always went to Middendorf’s on the way home,” Mitchell recalled. “I grew up thinking this place was just on the way back from everywhere. These days, whenever I’m flying out of town, we always stop here for a taste of Louisiana seafood before we go.”

Middendorf's Restaurant

30160 Hwy. 51, Akers, (985) 386-6666

Wed.-Sun., 10:30 a.m.-9 p.m.

1951 Oak Harbor Boulevard, Slidell, (985) 771-7777

Tue.-Sun., 10:30 a.m.-9 p.m.