Throughout the New York City Food & Wine Festival this weekend, Eater welcomes bloggers, journalists and food world stars to our lounge at the Standard Hotel. As the peeps pass through, we're going to chat them up and spit out the dialogue here in this business, From the Eater Lounge. Right now: Daniel Angerer, chef and owner of Klee Brasserie and future sausage maven.
What have you been up to during the festival? DA: We did a Viennese fried chicken at the Grand Tasting yesterday. Because that was really the dish we wanted to present. We beat Bobby Flay on Iron Chef with that dish, and because of the whole fried chicken craze.
So, the fried chicken trend hasn't abated? DA: No, it has not. What goes into the chicken? Popcorn crust?very delicate thing. It's like going to the movies and eating chicken. It's stuffed with Vermont cheddar – lightly smoked chicken. It’s only on Mondays for now.
How is business? We're located in West Chelsea, where there are a lot of galleries that closed in August. It was a difficult stretch. Everything worked out fine and now we are back to normal. It gets difficult with the recession and then 95 percent of New York people go out of town.
Everything’s back to normal or almost? Actually it’s even better if I compare the numbers to last year. But we really are promoting the hell out of the restaurant. We’ve done an Austrian pork special, another special of free ice cream for pregnant ladies. Also now we’re doing an Oktoberfest, since Austria is close to Munich. Lots of nice stuff, somewhat elegant. This PR thing has changed?we don’t do that much Twitter, but we do lots of Facebook. I also do lots of photography of my food.
Any upcoming projects? We're building a PDR [private dining room] in our basement and a demo kitchen. And we're working on a new space, but it’s nearby. It's small, just 500 square feet.
How would it be different from Klee? I've been very much in a sausage mood. It's a sausage-driven restaurant. It’s like what I grew up with in Austria. It’s not Crif dogs or DBGB, it’s old-world. Not German, but Austrian. Flavor forward. All natural ingredients. My sausages are even better, not for the masses.
More casual, with a lower price point? Absolutely. I really want to cater to that casual diner. There will be like five tables. Counter-service, really. Not that elegant, but going for flavor. That’s what I’m envisioning with that. Let’s face it, sometimes we forget the price point. I mean, we put almost one million dollars into Klee brasserie. It’s a different time now, different needs.
Projected opening? Early next year. Buildings department is not that easy to deal with. But everything is in place.
· All NYWFF 2009 Coverage [~ENY~]
