NEW ORLEANS -- One of the gulf coasts most popular seafood restaurants is coming to the North Shore.
According to a report from The New Orleans Advocate, Middendorf's Restaurant will open new location in Slidell near the intersection of I-10 and Oak Harbor Boulevard. Chef Horst Pfeifer confirmed the new location in an interview with Ian McNulty and hopes to have the restaurant open in 2018.
“People have approached me over the years to do another one, but I couldn’t find the right spot that really clicked for me,” Pfeifer said, noting that he looked in New Orleans proper as well. “When you think about what Middendorf’s is, what the name carries, I think this one has to look identical.”
Middendorf's roots go back to 1934, when Manchac, La. was all about fishing and cypres logging. But as McNulty reports, Manchac is now all about Middendorf's.
"Customers come from across the Gulf coast and the deep south, and they’ve been coming for generations," McNulty said. "Most of them know what they’ll order before they even get in the car — the signature thin fried catfish, the whole flounder stuffed with crab dressing, soft-shell crabs the size of catcher's mitts, frog legs and fried chicken. The restaurant’s identity is fixed to a sense of perennial tradition."
