"Hurricane Ike" news and stories

Middendorf's in 2006. Photo: Rdpeyton, Flickr

A hurricane can't keep a good restaurant down.

Middendorf's, a Louisiana catfish institution, on Wednesday reopened in its original location, nearly one year after four feet of Hurricane Ike floodwaters sloshed through the building. The exiled restaurant kept serving guests in an adjoining annex, but owner Horst Pfeifer says a white coat of paint applied to the structure known as the "brown building" didn't fool his longtime customers.

"It means a lot to people," Pfeifer says. "They want to be in the original building."

Middendorf's, which celebrated its 75th birthday on July Fourth, was the brainchild of Louis Middendorf, a lousy fisherman whose catch didn't pay the bills. He used his $500 World War II veteran bonus to start the cafe and stationed his wife Josie in the kitchen. Her paperthin fried catfish, which gained more fans every time the state poked another interstate past Manchac, was ultimately celebrated by Saveur and -- of greater interest to the Middendorf's crowd -- the quarterback-rich Manning family.