Payton Curry Dishes on the Maricopa County Health Department and His Vision for Brat Haus

By Nikki Buchanan Tue., Jun. 26 2012 at 9:00 AM

Categories: Buchanan, Chef Salad

Continued from page 1

What's your pet peeve in the kitchen: Towels over the shoulder and bitching. Both are a byproduct of laziness. I cannot stand people complaining about their current work environment, saying, "If this were my restaurant . . . " I always want to say, "If this were your restaurant, you would have gotten off that bar stool and taken the time to make it happen."

Courtesy of Brat Hause

Brat Haus brat with apricot relish

Describe Phoenix as a restaurant town: People say we're 10 or 12 years behind San Francisco and New York. But we still have burrata here. We have as much of the current stuff as we're allowed. Some of the restrictions that keep us from advancing come from the Maricopa County Health Department. We can't do the simple techniques of pickling and preservation that people have been doing for thousands of years. Here in Phoenix, you have to have a variance to make sauerkraut, a variance to make pickles, and a variance to make cured meat (bacon and pancetta, for example). In San Francisco, restaurants on every street corner do this. The more the health department allows our practices to grow, the better it's going to be.

What was your vision/thought process when you and Dave Andrea brainstormed Brat Haus: Sitting in a beer garden in Munich two years ago, watching people laughing and joking, drinking beer together, and having a great time because the price point allowed that. This is not a chef-driven restaurant. This is a concept-driven restaurant. This is bratwurst, Belgian fries, German pretzels, and beer. If you want a chicken club, you'll have to go somewhere else.

Enjoy this Chef Salad? Check out Nikki's previous interviews with:
Payton Curry of Brat Haus
Mark Tarbell of Tarbell's
Josh Hebert of Posh
Kevin Binkley of Binkley's Restaurant
Lori Hashimoto of Hana Japanese Eatery
Larry White, Jr. Lo-Lo's Fried Chicken & Waffles