{"id":36798,"date":"2023-11-22T14:12:11","date_gmt":"2023-11-22T19:12:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/?p=36798"},"modified":"2023-11-22T14:12:11","modified_gmt":"2023-11-22T19:12:11","slug":"spargel-on-nine-a-culinary-journey-from-bavaria-to-queensburys-route-9","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/2023\/11\/spargel-on-nine-a-culinary-journey-from-bavaria-to-queensburys-route-9\/","title":{"rendered":"Spargel On Nine: A Culinary Journey from Bavaria to Queensbury\u2019s Route 9"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Chef Christian Raeth opens Spargel On Nine at 925 Route 9 in Queensbury.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By Ann Donnelly<\/p>\n

Chef Christian Raeth, originally from Erlangen in the Bavarian region of Germany, is looking forward to the opening of his new restaurant, Spargel on Nine, later this month. As the name suggests, the restaurant is located at 925 Route 9 in Queensbury, in the former location of Outback Steakhouse and, more recently, 40 Oak.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile this is my first time owning a restaurant,\u201d says Raeth, \u201cThe vision of what we are trying to accomplish has been clear to me for decades. It has always been my dream.<\/p>\n

Raeth started his culinary training with an aprenticeship in his native Germany in 1984 and has worked in some of the top restaurants in Germany, Italy, France, and Switzerland. In 1991, Raeth came to the USA, where his sister had relocated, and found a position at the Albany Country Club, where he worked for four years until he returned to Germany. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

After his father died in 2000, Raeth returned to New York State to stay. He worked in fine dining in country clubs and restaurants like Van Patten Golf Club in Clifton Park, Fort William Henry in Lake George, and Pumpernickle\u2019s in Bolton Landing. For the last 13 years, Raeth spent most of his time out of the kitchen, working in sales for Sysco, the world\u2019s largest wholesale food distributor.<\/p>\n

Raeth aims to offer a more authentic German dining experience. \u201cI want to give the customer the experience of walking into a restaurant in Germany, but not in a tourist area. There are no dirndls, no lederhosen. No \u2018oompah\u2019 music. If it\u2019s your birthday, nobody will do the chicken dance.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/strong>Raeth plans to focus on vibrant, fresh dishes. \u201cThere will hardly be anything in the freezer besides some french fries and ice cream.\u201d The menu will be a healthy mixture of the classics, some comfort food, and some high-end, more elegant dishes. \u201cWe include sauerbraten, roast pork, roulade, goulash, and red cabbage made from scratch. But there is a whole different type of German cooking that nobody here really touches. There is filet minion and strip steak, just done in a little bit of a different way. We hired plenty of talent for the kitchen, and I\u2019ve been around long enough, so there is nothing that we cannot execute and cook. It just has to fit and be wanted by the customer. I hope that the community will embrace it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>There is one German dining tradition that Raeth hopes to incorporate a couple of months after they have developed a few regular customers. \u201cStammtisch is a community table for regulars. If you regularly come into the restaurant, you won\u2019t need to yell across the bar to your friends. A table will be reserved as \u2018Stammtisch\u2019 for regulars to sit together. Some may just have a drink, while others may be eating.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of course, beer will be an essential part of the dining experience. \u201cBreweries in Germany are very important in the food industry. They either own the restaurant or the building housing it, so the proprietor can only bring in beer from that brewery,\u201d says Raeth. Spargel on Nine will serve seven varieties of beer from Weihenstephan, the Bavarian State Brewery, the oldest brewery in the world, established in 1040.\u201d Raeth worked with a representative from the brewery and the distributor to convince Weihenstephan to import four more flavors.<\/p>\n

Spargel on Nine will open with 34 members of staff. \u201cWe\u2019ve hired phenomenal people, especially the wait staff. I consider them to be my sales force. Every day at 3:30 pm, we will have a \u2018family dinner\u2019 with everyone from the owner to the bus boy and in between. This restaurant is my dream and a long time coming, but I cannot do it alone. I need a big team. This is a rewarding business, but it must be in a healthy environment. That is up to me to create, and that\u2019s what I\u2019m after.\u201d<\/p>\n

Raeth describes an interview with one young woman for a position as a busser, \u201cWhen she saw the plates were nicer than where she worked before, she said, \u2018I\u2019m afraid I will drop the plate,\u2019 and I said, \u2018Yes, you are going to drop plates. I\u2019m going to overcook a steak. A waitress is going to forget to put in an order. We are human. We make mistakes.\u2019 This is the environment that I am after.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked about the name, Raeth says, \u201cIt was difficult to come up with a name that showed that it isn\u2019t the well-known cliche of a German restaurant, i.e. Queensbury Brewhaus.\u201d Spargel means asparagus in German. Asparagus is a popular dish in Germany, mainly white asparagus, in the first three weeks of June when the fresh crop is available.<\/p>\n

The restaurant has received a fresh coat of paint to cover the existing interior, reflecting Outback\u2019s Aussie theme. \u201cA neighbor came in and painted. Another did some handy work. It\u2019s phenomenal who came on board to make this happen.\u201d When you walk in the front door, you see a map of Germany and the surrounding countries that have influenced its cuisine. There are also pictures throughout the restaurant with images of Erlangen, Raeth\u2019s birthplace, and asparagus.<\/p>\n

Raeth hopes people come from a bit further for a different experience. \u201cThe phone keeps ringing. People are coming in and asking, wanting to make reservations. The buzz around this concept is phenomenal. If half the people show up, we will be in trouble.\u201d<\/p>\n

To start, Spargel on Nine will be open Wednesday through Sunday for dinner only. \u201cOnce we can deliver dinner consistently on a high level, we will look to expand dinner to six days a week and then roll into lunch, and once we master that, we will look at offsite catering.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Ann Donnelly Chef Christian Raeth, originally from Erlangen in the Bavarian region of Germany, is looking forward to the opening of his new restaurant, Spargel on Nine, later this month. As the name suggests, the restaurant is located at 925 Route 9 in Queensbury, in the former location of Outback Steakhouse and, more recently, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":89,"featured_media":36799,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\r\nSpargel On Nine: A Culinary Journey from Bavaria to Queensbury\u2019s Route 9 - Glens Falls Business Journal<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\r\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.glensfalls.com\/glensfallsbusinessjournal\/2023\/11\/spargel-on-nine-a-culinary-journey-from-bavaria-to-queensburys-route-9\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Spargel On Nine: A Culinary Journey from Bavaria to Queensbury\u2019s Route 9 - Glens Falls Business Journal\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Ann Donnelly Chef Christian Raeth, originally from Erlangen in the Bavarian region of Germany, is looking forward to the opening of his new restaurant, Spargel on Nine, later this month. 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