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THE DISH
MUSIC
Kurt’s Restaurant and Lounge Making
them
4225 River Green Parkway, Duluth
770-623-4128
www.kurtsrestaurant.com
BY RACHAEL MASON
ONTHEMENU
[email protected]
■ Seafood Martini appetizer: Made with jumbo Gulf
shrimp ($11), jumbo lump
crabmeat ($12) or sushi tuna
($9). Served with Skyy Vodka
cocktail sauce.
■ The Meridian salad: Field
greens, artichoke, peppers,
sweet onions, Greek olives,
feta, and basil vinaigrette
($7).
■ Kurt’s “Edelweiss” Beef
Filet: Served fondue-style
with six sauces ($26).
■ Tuna Steak: Coated with
mixed peppercorn. With a citrus butter sauce ($19).
■ Gulf Jumbo Shrimp:
Crusted in coconut, deep
fried. Served with an orange
peppercorn sauce and rice
pilaf ($26).
■ Classic Weinerschnitzel:
Lightly breaded veal cutlets,
with lemon butter sauce and
spaetzle, which are tiny noodles ($17).
■ Jaegerkotlet: A grilled
veal chop topped with an
assorted of mushrooms, wine
sauce and spaetzle ($23).
■ A side dish of cabbage:
Braised in burgundy wine
($3).
■ Owners: Kurt and Verena
Eisele.
■ Open since: The restaurant opened in 1985 and was
moved to its present location in
1989.
■ Hours: Monday through
Saturday, 5:30 to 11 p.m.
■ Location: The restaurant
is located in a former farmhouse that is now part of the
River Green office park off
Peachtree Industrial Boulevard.
■ Capacity: Kurt’s seats
more than 300.
■ Atmosphere: The restaurant’s many dining rooms are
small and intimate.
The more casual lounge area,
which divides Kurt’s from the
adjacent Vreny’s Biergarten, is
equipped with a full bar. This
area, decorated with racing
memorabilia, includes a living
room setup with a huge couch
in the corner.
■ Crowd: Some of the regular customers at Kurt’s have
been coming to the restaurant
since it opened.
The somewhat out-of-theway location in the River
Green office park has had an
effect on the restaurant’s clientele. “We are not a drive-by
restaurant. We are a destination
place,” Eisele said.
■ The food: Kurt’s offers a
mix of American and European
foods, including steaks,
seafood and salads.
“We do the standard steaks
and some dishes with a European or German influence,”
Eisele said.
The Filet Edelweiss is a popular entree. Though it’s not
cooked at the table, this fondue-style steak is served with
six sauces. “Instead of cooking
your own meat, you dip it,”
Scream
Foursome B2K brings
tour to Philips tonight
BY TORI BOONE
[email protected]
Special Photo
B2K will perform at Philips Arena tonight as part of Scream Tour III.
Known to his fans as Lil’ Fizz, 17-year-old Druex Pierre
Fredricks is recovering from the pandemonium of a sold-out
show in Madison Square Garden he played the night before.
Not a typical night for the average teenager, but he’s
used to the chaos as a member of platinum recording R&B
group B2K.
“It can be tiring, but it’s the life that we chose to live. We
try to have as much fun as possible,” Fizz said during a
recent telephone interview on his way to BET’s “106 &
Park: Top Ten Live” in New York City.
The L.A.-based foursome is headlining the Scream Tour
III, which stops today in Atlanta at Philips Arena.
“Our show is going to be a bigger production than last year
IFYOUGO
■ What: Scream Tour III
■ When: 7:30 p.m. today
■ Where: Philips Arena
■ Cost: $22.50 to $37.50 through Ticketmaster at
www.ticketmaster.com or 404-249-6400.
■ Call: 404-878-3000 or visit philipsarena.com
with a lot of energy, great lighting and more dancing. Plus,
the crowd in Atlanta always shows us a lot of energy,” he said.
The tour also features newcomer Jhene, Marques Hous-
Hair-rock ‘Heaven’
Warrant brings back memories
on Rock Never Stops tour
BY JESSICA CARTER
All wine sold by the glass is
served in an 8-ounce minicarafe, a bottle with a flaring
lip. The carafes are used to
precisely measure the amount
served. “You know how much
you’re getting,” Eisele said.
Gwinnett Daily Post File Photo/Nicole Finley
Kurt’s Restaurant and Lounge in Duluth offers mix of American and European foods
including steaks, seafood and salads.
Eisele said.
Seafood entrees are wellliked. The Pan Grilled Salmon
Filet L’Alsace is wrapped in
applewood-smoked bacon and
served with horseradish cream,
sauerkraut and chef’s potatoes.
“We do lobster in various
ways — broiled, steamed, fried
or stuffed,” Eisele said.
Many people still believe
that Germans only eat sausage
and only drink beer, Eisele
PAGE 4 • GWINNETT DAILY POST • FRIDAY, AUGUST 8, 2003
said. “We do eat seafood in
Germany, not just bratwurst
and sauerkraut,” he said.
“German food is no different
from anybody else’s food. It’s
just different names,” Eisele
said. For instance, the Italian
veal scallopini and the German
schniztel are essentially the
same, he said. Both are thin
cuts of veal.
Specials at Kurt’s change
every week. Offerings may
include what Eisele calls “the
cowboy steak,” a bone-in ribeye, served with mushrooms
and chili.
■ Beverages: The restaurant
has its own wine cellar, which
is filled with a variety of bottles organized by region.
“I pride myself on having a
varied list of American, New
Zealand, Australian, German
and French wines,” Eisele said.
■ Things you might not
know: In 1965, Eisele moved
to Atlanta from Germany. He
worked in area restaurants and
clubs for 20 years before opening his own restaurants.
In 1993, Kurt’s son, Alexander Eisele, opened Vreny’s
Biergarten, a restaurant specializing in German cuisine.
Though both restaurants are
located in the same Duluth
building, they are run as a separate businesses.
■ The last word: “We try
to serve comfort food,” Eisele
said. “We want to serve you a
good meal, properly prepared.”
[email protected]
Warrant joined the rock ’n’ roll
hair band parade in 1989, and
more than a decade later the
“Down Boys” are out to prove
rock never stops as they tour with
Kip Winger, Slaughter and
Whitesnake. The tour rumbles
into HiFi Buys Amphitheater
Wednesday.
Lead singer Jani Lane says
although tastes in music have
changed vastly since the band hit
its peak — both the grunge and
rap-rock genres kicked glam rock
off the map in the ’90s — he finds
Warrant still holds a place in the
hearts of listeners.
1. You’re on the Rock Never
Stops Tour, co-headlining with
Whitesnake. How’s the tour
going?
It’s going well. Crowds are
good. It’s great for us — Whitesnake is a group we never really
toured with, so we’re seeing a few
new faces.
Special Photo
Warrant and the Rock Never Stops Tour head to HiFi Buys
Amphitheater on Wednesday.
2. You guys have been around
for a while and have been out
on the road for a long time. Do
you have a lot of fans who you
see every night?
We definitely have hardcore
fans that have become more
acquaintances than just hardcore
fans. And no, I don’t mean that
kind of fan — I mean, we used to
have our port in every city, and
Atlanta was one of them.
But it’s kind of like disco,
ton, formerly of Immature, Mario and actor/rapper Nick
Cannon, star of last year’s hit “Drumline.”
After the tour ends in September, Fizz said there’s no
slowing down for B2K.
“We’re going to go home for two weeks and then start
our European tour.”
As far as new material, Fizz said the group will hit the
studio soon to record the soundtrack for their movie, “You
Got Served,” scheduled to open in theaters Superbowl
weekend. The film also stars rapper/actress Lil’ Kim and
Jackee, known from the 1980s sitcom “227.”
“It’s a cross between ‘Bring It On’ and ‘Drumline,’”
Fizz said.
where disco was cool and then it
went out, but now it’s retro and
it’s back again. ’80s music is like
that. There was this huge backlash against ’80s music when
grunge hit. It’s trippy now
because you see a younger generation of kids and they love the
’80s because their parents grew
up on grunge and they hate the
’80s.
3. How have you been able to
stay around for so long?
Vitamins and the blood of
young children. No, it’s just luck,
I guess.
4. No, really, how do you keep
it from getting old for you?
How do we keep it fresh in the
hizous every night? ’80s music is
just so loved by some people and
so hated by other people. I think
any time you’re involved with
music that affects people so
deeply, eventually it’s going to
have a nostalgia factor.
My (12-year-old) daughter saw
me at Universal Studios — she
lives with my ex-wife, the one
from the “Cherry Pie” video (former model Bobbie Brown) —
and I was expecting her to be like,
‘Yea, my daddy plays music on
stage.” So I see her after the show,
and I say, ‘What did you think?’
And she says, ‘Well, it wasn’t
Eminem, was it?’
I would love for people to come
out to see us do the new stuff, and
the hardcore fans do. We add a
few new songs now and then, but
we only have a limited amount of
time on stage. We only get to play
45 to 50 minutes, and there are
certain songs that if we don’t play
them we’ll never hear the end of it.
If I left out ‘Heaven’ or ‘Cherry
Pie,’ they’d hunt me down.
If it’s not still fun, I won’t do it.
But right now it’s fun. Even at my
old decrepit age I still feel like
$100.
5. What’s your favorite memory from an Atlanta show?
We were playing the Omni —
I’m not sure who we were playing with — I think we were playing with Poison. After the show
we went to Charlie McGruders to
party and hang out in Buckhead.
Our entire crew — the band, our
crew, our security guys — got in
a fight with their security crew. It
was this huge barroom brawl. So
they banned us. Anyone who
reads the liner notes to ‘Cherry
Pie’ will see we wish a very
warm ‘f--- you’ to Charlie
McGruders. But they went out of
business ... and we’re still playing.
FRIDAY, AUGUST 8, 2003 • GWINNETT DAILY POST • PAGE 25