Middendorf’s Seafood Restaurant is bringing its signature thin-fried catfish to downtown Baton Rouge.
Middendorf’s owner and chef Horst Pfeifer will bring a two-week pop-up inside Passé, a French restaurant located inside the Origin Hotel at 101 St. Ferdinand St., according to a news release.
Pop-up days are 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. March 17-20 and March 24-27. The pop-up’s limited menu will serve lunch, dinner and certain dishes, including its signature thin-fried catfish.
Thin fried catfish at Middendorf’s in Slidell, La., Friday, June 28, 2019.
STAFF PHOTO BY SOPHIA GERMER
It’ll be a full kitchen takeover, so Passé will be serving breakfast only 7 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. on pop-up days.
History of Middendorf’s
Middendorf’s was founded in 1934 by a traveling salesman and his wife, Louis and Josie Middendorf. After the market crash in 1929, the couple and their son moved to a small fishing village in Manchac.
There, they opened a cafe and received a $500 loan co-signed by former New Orleans Mayor T. Semmes Walmsley. As Josie Middendorf cooked and crafted all of the recipes, her husband manned the front and tended the bar. The duo ran the spot until a different owner took the reins in 1967.
Middendorf’s in Slidell, La., Friday, June 28, 2019.
STAFF PHOTO BY SOPHIA GERMER
The ownership would change a couple more times and found its way back into the Middendorf family for 40 years, when Josie and Louis Middendorf’s son, Richard, took over in 1967, eventually handing it to his daughter Susie.
The business was bought in 2007 by the current owners, another husband and wife duo, Horst and Karen Pfeifer, who owned the French Quarter’s Bella Luna until Hurricane Katrina.
Middendorf’s currently has two locations, one in Manchac and another in Slidell.
Dining and Cooking