Gera. The Gera restaurateur Spyridon Gkogkas buys the traditional restaurant and wants to revive it. How this came about and what he plans to do:
He is not afraid of big shoes to fill. In a few days, Spyridon Gkogkas will celebrate the first birthday of his restaurant "Oscar", with which he revitalized the former "Paulaner" on Humboldtstrasse. And now the Greek-born man wants to breathe new life into another gastronomic institution in the city. He has bought the "Kuckucksdiele" in Gera-Heinrichsgrün.
The more than 100-year history of the traditional restaurant in Gera's city forest was abruptly interrupted in autumn 2022 by the death of the long-time operator and owner. Now, a year later, there is a prospect of new chapters in this restaurant's history. Spyridon Gkogkas wants to continue writing it with his family. "Because the family helps, the decision was not difficult," he says at an on-site meeting with Marcel and Dieter Weidener. Their Gera real estate company had been commissioned to sell the restaurant and the 4,000 square meter property.
Character, orientation and name should be preserved
"We were here for the first time around ten years ago with the family, as guests, and I had already fallen in love with the restaurant, where the attention to detail and gastronomy was evident from every corner," recalls the 53-year-old restaurateur. At the time, he was still working in the Gera restaurant "Knossos", where he worked as a chef until he opened his own restaurant, "Oscar". "I told the owner of the Kuckucksdiele that if he ever wanted to sell, he should think of me." It was almost like fate, he says, even if the background is of course sad. "But an object like this has to live on."
And it should remain largely unchanged, says Gkogkas. "We will certainly modernize it, do a bit of work to the furnishings, but the character should be preserved." And so is the focus: traditional, German cuisine. Even the name will probably stay, it has become established. "There have been situations in the past where I wanted to go out for a nice German meal with the family, but where?" When asked about this, he immediately thinks of the classic, Thuringian dumplings with roulade, but he also associates a good goulash with this type of cuisine. Nevertheless, the future operator naturally wants to leave his mark, for example in terms of the high standards of meat quality.
Start expected early next year
He doesn't want to go into more detail yet. It will still take some time for the reopening of the "Kuckucksdiele". On the one hand, Spyridon Gkogkas is going on a four-week family holiday in Greece in the next few days, and on the other hand, the interior design work will only begin after that, which will certainly take some time. Not to forget the two to three weeks in which all the dishes on the menu will be tested, he says, and is aiming for a start at the beginning of next year.
Spyridon Gkogkas is looking ahead with confidence and is happy with his decision, and the same goes for his children, he says. Marcel Weidener and his father Dieter Weidener are also happy "that we found the right person and were able to hand this beautiful restaurant over to the right hands". The books were filled well in advance, he says. And the restaurant itself, with its almost 300 seats inside and outside, was well equipped and well maintained - good conditions to revive the excursion restaurant.
Quelle: OTZ
