Currywurst: Authentic German Sausage in Los Angeles

Stop what you are doing and get in your car and travel to Currywurst. They have always been the best and will always be the very best place to eat authentic German Sausages. It does not get better than this. I have covered this place before and now I am covering them again. They have decided to bring the Doughnut Dog into this world. How this isn't the greatest food on the planet I have no idea. It blows me away that there isn't a line out the door. All I can think is that they are located in the heart of a jewish community might be holding them back. I can say enough good things about this place I just hope that with enough time the word will spread. I sit down with Kai Loebach the owner of Currywurst to find out what kind of crazy he is serving at his sausage palace.

MEAT ME: Explain to me the doughnut dog?

Kai Loebach: The doughnut dog is a Long John Doughnut that is not glazed or sugary. It’s a plain doughnut with plain all beef Vienna hotdog. That’s important it is not a sausage it is a hotdog.

MEAT ME: Hotdog?

Kai Loebach: Hotdog! Hence the name Doughnut Dog! It is topped with your choice of either sauerkraut, grilled onions, or home made mustard.

MEAT ME: What to do you recommend?

Kai Loebach: It depends on what kind of a person you are…

MEAT ME: I am an onion’s kind-of-a-person.

Kai Loebach: ONIONS? I love the onions and our mustard. It is a great combination, because doughnut has that soft feeling and the hotdog has that nice snap to it. We also serve it with a pickle.

MEAT ME: Really, a hotdog with a pickle?

Kai Loebach: Yup! A hotdog with a PICKLE!!! A quarter of a pickle, it is really nice quality. There are very few places in LA that actually sell Vienna hotdog’s cause they cost almost twice as much as my all natural sausages. It’s crazy!

MEAT ME: What do you mean my “All Natural”? What does that mean?

Kai Loebach:  It means that there are no preservatives in the sausages. There are no color additives. It is just the meat and spices. That’s it. Natural casings, there are no artificial casings. The chicken sausages do not have pork casings they have collagen casings. As an Orthodox Jew you could be eating that sausage and not have to repent after that. It’s “Jew Proof”.

MEAT ME: It should say that outside. Being in a Jewish neighborhood, they have a right to know.

Kai Loebach: We have had a few guys sit outside and it is so funny when you see a really religious Jewish person (the ones with the payis’s) sitting outside of a German sausage place, where most of the food is pork. It is like, come on, do you really know where you are sitting? Umm… we don’t decimate against anybody.

We also have the Vegan sausages, which are the smoked apple and sage, and Mexican Chipotle. I don’t want to fool Vegans and say we cook the vegan sausages and the pork sausages on the same grill. The Vegan sausages are being cooked in a cast iron skillet that is just off to the side of the grill and we never have anything else in it. I think that is a very important point.

Spaghetti ice cream is a really typical German desert that I grew up with. When I moved here I thought… Actually my first year here I didn’t even think about it. It was so far removed, but when we opened Currywurst I thought, well anybody can do apple strudel. Everybody was doing it so we wanted to separate ourselves from the ordinary folks. So I decided to do something that I grew up with and that was also really authentic. The Spaghetti ice cream is vanilla ice cream put through a special German hand press machine. There is no motor so there is some elbow grease going into it as well. It comes out looking like spaghetti and we top it with fresh strawberry sauce and white chocolate shavings.  It looks like a plate of spaghetti marinara. Excellent.

MEAT ME: You also added a burger it looks like?

Kai Loebach: Yes the burger is an all Angus Beef 6 oz burger, which is a really nice substantial size. It’s presented on a brioche bun and it comes with cheddar cheese, garlic aioli, onions and tomatoes and served with a side of greens. You can also have it with french fries. It’s a great product.

MEAT ME: Why did you decide to introduce the burger?

Kai Loebach: It’s AMERICA. We live here. If this place were existing in Germany that menu would be reduced to 1 sausage and that’s it. If you go into a place like this in Germany you order Currywurst. They don’t even offer you the sausage with a bun. It’s like you sell currywurst you get currywurst. It’s one sausage.

In America you have to have options. People come in here, knowing we still serve several different options, but still feel we have a very limited menu. It’s not like they are eating 6 different items while they are here, so why are they saying it’s limited when they are only ordering one item anyways? That’s what you come in here for. When we introduced the burger we thought it was something that was easy to handle, it is such an American staple and I thought it would be good, and it has been really successful.

MEAT ME: Do they serve burgers in Germany the same way that they might serve them here?

Kai Loebach: Not in the same way they do here. Yes, they server burgers in Germany but as a lunch item called “Frikadellen”, is a larger burger patty that includes some soaked bread, eggs, spices, usually a little ketchup and mustard a lot like meat loaf. It’s a patty that you eat with mustard for lunch. That is very typical next to the Currywurst, but when they eat a burger it is nothing outrageous like we have here where people get very inventive. In German they have adapted to that American standard where you get a sort of wonder bread type of a bun that you get at any type of a burger fast food place. It’s just a simple patty with cheese and may be mayo and ketchup and that’s it. So people don’t usually go all out.

MEAT ME: So since we last met the biggest issue was translating what Currywurst was. How is that going?

Kai Loebach: Terrible. Look there is nobody in there that is the problem. People just haven’t gotten it. We had a great spot on KTLA 5, and I was amazed by how much airtime they gave us. They gave us 15 minutes of airtime on a Friday morning between 6 and 8 in the morning. That’s huge. It was for the introduction of the Doughnut Dog, but when people come in here and they read Currywurst as non-German or non traveled American you really have no idea what it is; if it is the name of the restaurant or if it is the name of the dish. They really have no idea what it is. People are just like, what is it? They have never had it and most people say they will try it because they don’t know what it is.

When we say Currywurst is the name of this really great dish and they try it and it’s great, but how do I get the people in here thinking they can also get as sausage on a bun that has nothing to do with curry, and that doesn’t like curry. That is still a pretty big challenge and until we educate people here… That’s what it is.

MEAT ME: Well aside from that, how is everything else going? Are your cookies doing really well?

Kai Loebach: The cookies are doing well. We sell a lot to catering. My regular catering business is doing really well. That is the reason why this place is still open. I am not making any money I am loosing money every month, but I am looking at this project as sending my kid to college. You pay a lot of money for the education but you don’t know what comes out of it.

I am going to stick it out for 5 years and it proves to break even or make a little profit we got to continue. If after 5 years I fail to get the word out about it there is no reason for me to continue.

MEAT ME: So what would you tell someone who hasn’t been here, why they should come here?

Kai Loebach: It is a very unique product, even though it falls under the category of “fast food” or “street food” the quality is so much higher. The French fries, beef and sausages are of the most amazing quality. They have no preservatives; it is a very clean product. Plus, it’s an authentic German experience. If you don’t have the money to travel to Germany, our experience is the closest thing to it.

MEAT ME: So people coming from Germany?

Kai Loebach: Yes, a lot. The tour buses go by and I sit outside I can see the pupils going large, “Oh my God, look… There’s Currywurst.” People come back to eat. We have a few hostels’ down the street the Banana Boat Hotel, a lot of German kids stay there and when they are walking down to the grove they see; they are like “Oh my God”, and they are taking pictures of it.

MEAT ME: I see you had to move your sign (sausage crossing)?

Kai Loebach: Yes after 2 years the city finally said, you can’t do it. It is still very visible. So it is one step away from being illegal.

MEAT ME: So today I ordered the Bockwurst, correct?

Kai Loebach: Yes, you got the Bockwurst (pork/veal) which is sliced Bockwurst with curry ketchup and curry powder. That is authentic as it gets. Then you had the Bürgermeister, which is a burger on a Brioche bun with tomatoes, onions, and cheese. Then you had the Doughnut Dog, which is a Long John doughnut which is plain and not sweetened with an all beef Vienna hotdog, caramelized onions, the house mustard and a pickle. Then you had the spaghetti ice cream. Which is vanilla ice cream thrust through a machine to make it look like spaghetti topped with fresh strawberry sauce and white chocolate shavings.

People this food is amazing. Aside from actually going to Germany, it doesn't get any more authentic than Currywurst of Los Angeles. Please come out, treat yourself, and enjoy a luxury you might not have the chance of enjoying unless this unique establishment gets the well deserved business that it needs to survive.

You can check out Currywurst's website or find them at 109 N Fairfax Ave  Los Angeles, CA 90036

Save the sausages,
Sean Rice
aka MEAT ME

Sausage is the new Hamburger! – Currywurst, Los Angeles

That’s right! One big long tasty piece of sausage is all you need to hit the spot. Burger’s are so yesterday. I found out about Currywurst on Facebook through their Valentines Day special with German model Jordan Carver. For the month of February every Tuesday for twenty minutes and eleven seconds we had FREE sausages for everybody that walked in the door.

FREE in this country? This place has to be doing something right if they are giving out free sausage. I looked them up and found out they were owned and run by the very successful and well-known German catering chef Kai Loebach. I was sold! I needed to get in and find out more about this “Über Juicy Sausage Fest!”.

I could tell from Chef Kai’s resume which includes Presidents to Mick Jagger that he wasn’t making just any ordinary German sausage. Not even, this chef is selling perfection. To put it in an American perspective German chefs don’t fuck around its cook or die. When it comes to the sausage fight club Chef Kai is the master.

We all know the rules to that club! Don’t talk when your eating sausage and don’t eat sausage when your talking. Currywurst get’s right to the point offering the perfect sausage for everyone no matter if your the carnivore or the vegan.

I got the chance to sit down with Kai and enjoy a lovely taste of German perfection and find out exactly what Currywurst is all about.

MEAT ME: So what is this that I am eating?

Chef Kai: (German Accent) This is the Hungarian sausage with our grilled onions and homemade mustard. The mustard is a little bit of sweet and spicy mustard that we make.

MEAT ME: What type of meat is in it?


Chef Kai: Only pork.

MEAT ME: Any particular part of the pig?

Chef Kai: Pork Butt. It is pork butt, garlic, paprika, and obviously seasoning.

MEAT ME: What about this white sausage in the ketchup sauce?

Chef Kai: Currywurst. The original currywurst from Germany is a white sausage. Sometimes they use bratwurst and knockwurst but those 2 sausages are so similar that you can barley tell them apart. Even with the German’s they can’t (tell the difference). If you tell somebody ok this is the bratwurst, they look at it… They take it as a bratwurst. It’s just the wording really it is a combination of veal and pork and it’s a more fluffier sausage so it gets whipped.

What the hamburger is the Americans, Currywurst is to the Germans.

In Germany this dish as you have it, is sold over 800 million times a year annually. That is a huge number. You can imagine there are a gazillion places on a lot of corners and it is usually a dive. You will never find something as clean as here in Germany.

MEAT ME: In terms of restaurants?

Chef Kai: No in terms of this Currywurst places. In Germany it is called an Imbiss, which are basically fast food places. In Germany you don’t necessarily sit at a table. You stand at a counter and eat or you walk with it. Germany is also a place where people walk more. Here if you don’t have a parking spot in front of the door people saying oh there is no parking. We have a parking lot there (points north on Fairfax) you can park at the Grove there is plenty of parking but if you don’t have anything right out side there is no parking.

So in Germany this type of stuff gets eaten while you are walking. It is a differently mentality and the way it is severd here is we enhance the ketchup sauce a little bit. In Germany the traditional way with a lot of places is just pure ketchup. Our ketchup sauce contains certified organic ketchup, which has no corn products and is made with sugar. So it is already a different product but we also enhance it with organic tomatoes, seasonings and curry power. So it is a little bit more of a thicker sauce and a little bit more marinara (type) because I am not a believer of pouring just ketchup over it. If you go to better establishments in Germany you still get a nicer sauce. These people that sell these types of food are still a far cry from a chef or even from a cook.

It is like someone just wanted to open a Currywurst place. They don’t know anybody so they go to Costco and they buy ketchup in a large container and they just squirt it on it.

MEAT ME: Currywurst… How do you explain that to the average American?


Chef Kai: Your Fucked! (we laughed out loud) See that is the reason why we are not doing so well. When I started thinking about what I am gonna call it; am I gonna call it “Sausage Land” am I gonna call it “Knockwurst Haven” or “Sausage Kingdom” or whatever. I thought no I wanted to use “Currywurst”. Currywurst is the German name for it and the Americans just have to get used to it. It’s a learning process. Anytime you introduce anything foreign in this country it takes a while to incorporate it into the system. If you translate it people get turned off because it has the word “curry” in it, and the word “wurst”. It could be the worst curry? (he jokes) So they think, “ Why would we go there? It’s a bad Indian restaurant.” What we did is put up these words into the window to refer to what it could be. Brats, we have sausages, tater munchen those are all American invented words they are not existing in Germany these words. It is like the same with “Farfegnugen” it was an amazing advertising campaign by VW but the word farfegnugen does not exist in German. It is really difficult to translate the word into something that Americans can understand. Any Amercian that has been to Germany would be familiar with it. You come to America you have a hamburger you go to Germany you have a currywurst or a something similar to that. So that is the difficult part.

MEAT ME: So what is your background in terms of culinary experience?

Chef Kai: I am a fully trained chef I went to culinary school for three and a half years in Germany and learned the business from the ground up. Three and a half really hard years; in Germany the system is a little different. Each town basically has its own culinary school. Its not like here where it is all about school; there it is all about practice you work at a restaurant for five or six days a week depending on where you end up and you go to school one day. Here in the states the course is six months long, you only go to school, and when you come out of school you have no clue about the business. In Germany you can’t let loose on anything you know what it takes. From day one you’re on the line you know what to do. Yes you have to learn the basics and that is what you do for three and a half years. Those are really long hours. It has been compared to slavery that is what it is.

When I talk to somebody and they tell me they are thinking about going to culinary school I say think about it. Compared to American standards, culinary school in Germany is slavery. I cannot tell you how many times my supervisor rammed a meat fork into my ass… I mean it drew blood! There is no way of calling them an “Asshole” or “Screw You!” You would have lost your job immediately. You can’t just sue anybody; that is just not how it is. It is really hardcore, France is the same so I went through that.

I came to the states when I was really young just finished culinary school. I worked in Europe and Germany and then I came here and got a job at the Century Plaza Hotel. I was actually homeless for a week; I slept on the street I only had $2,000 dollars to my name with 2 suite cases including my knives that I traveled here with. I had a job as a chef at the Century Plaza Hotel but felt like they were taking advantage of me because I was only making $3.25 an hour. Since I was on a student visa they could take advantage of me and not have to pay me any kind of real salary. I left after 6 months and said this is not for me. I was making 2,000 salad roses a day and nobody cared about what I do.

So I started catering and with in a year I established my own catering company that I still have to this day and is now in its 25th year. It is doing really well, so well that I can afford this hobby (Currywurst), basically. This is not covering any cost at the moment. So I need the catering business to subsidize this little hobby. The plan was to open this 20 years ago since this is food that I grew up with and everybody was familiar with it in Germany. Every time I started looking into it the time wasn’t right. I was too busy catering or some kind of hurdle was in my way. 2 years ago when the economy tanked the catering business wasn’t doing so well so I thought that maybe this was the time to open an establishment with a six dollar and fifty cent price point where you can get full on something inexpensive and still be great quality.

There was this German trend that started about 2 years ago so I thought this was perfect I’ll fit right in. It took me a year to find the location and it took me another 8 months to build out the space. So it was a long time before the sign went up and with the city being so difficult and throwing so many sticks into my way it took me 8 months to open such a small place. We did it and I am glad that I did but would I do it again? Hum I am not sure. Maybe with a different name because it is difficult to establish something that people are not very familiar with. I mean if I had a hamburger or a weinersnitchel written on the door… It is something that they know. Currywurst was a challenge to myself and I didn’t want to give into the American mentality of promoting something that everybody can identify with. I wanted to make it interesting. For example we have this campaign running right now “Über Juicy Sausage Fest” that’s what we do. We have this gorilla sign (sausage xing sign) I am hoping that it stays up but it is not a legal sign so the city can take it down at anytime. You have no idea how many people stop here and get out of the car just to take a picture of it.

MEAT ME: That is so funny. I knew whom you guys where from Jordan Carver’s Facebook page; when she was promoting your place on Valentines Day. I thought that you guys were in Germany. I was walking home from the Grove and I saw your sausage xing sign and I looked to the left and saw your store front and I couldn’t believe that is was the same Currywurst. We had been talking on twitter before that had even happen.

Chef Kai: Jordan Carver came in February for the New Year campaign. That month on every Tuesday for twenty minutes and eleven seconds we had free sausages for everybody that walked in the door and we were advertising that on Facebook and Twitter. Jordan Carver, being a German model, tweeted it on her page as well so that the crowds rattled up.

MEAT ME: So how many sausages do you have?


Chef Kai: We have 3 different sausages. We have the pork and the veal. We have just the pork, which is the Hungarian. We have the Thüringer which is a region in Germany, it identifies with the style of sausage it’s a longer sausage. In Germany it is made out of pork as well. Germany is a pig land, but coming to this country you have to be flexible and you have to cater to different ethnic groups so I decided to make the Thüringer a chicken version. Because of the chicken I didn’t want to introduce a natural pork casing so we decided to do a collagen casing on the chicken.

MEAT ME: What is that exactly (collagen)?

Chef Kai: Collagen is a beef product. It is extracted out of beef so if you want to smear the sausage on your face you might get rid of wrinkles (laughing). Then we have the 2 vegan sausages. One is a smoked apple and the other is a much spicier version the chipotle. The sides we have; the sauerkraut we get from a German company who makes it with no preservatives the only thing they do is shred the cabbage and they marinate it. It is not really great to eat it like this so we prepare it; I use my grandmother’s recipe. The foundation of the recipe is an all natural and has no preservatives. This is very important because all of the products that you buy at the super market have preservatives in it and I get an upset stomach right away after that. There are so many health benefits to sauerkraut, if you buy it out of a jar the preservatives take away all of the… the… (sorry I have a hard time speaking in English when I am thinking in German so whatever is Spanglish to me is “Germish”! (too funny) What I am saying is all of the health benefits that sauerkraut has, with preservatives, you’re better off eating chemicals. Our French fries we use great oil for it, it’s the top of the line that money can buy it shows in the quality. We have five or six different sauces for the French fries we have the chipotle mayo, roasted garlic, ranch, regular mayonnaise, which is really all you needed in Germany. Cause we are in America you have to have all these choices. Germany you go into a place like this you say, “Darf ich ein currywurst MIT rot und weiss bitte” Which means red/white; red for ketchup and white for mayonnaise. There is no question of how you want the meat or how you want the French fries. This is what you get. Its like if you order decaf coffee in Frankfurt and the waiter brings the coffee and you say is this decaf the waiter says to you its coffee. You have to be flexible here.

It is not like the Würstkuche in downtown they have a great product but this place is more based on the concept of In-N-Out Burgers where your known for one product and you want to do this one product really well. The other thing is if you go too crazy and the Germans come in and the taste it and they say, “He’s been in America way too long. This is not currywurst any longer this is some American way.” I want it to be true to the original way of early currywurst. We don’t have rattlesnake sausage, we don’t have crocodile sausage we don’t have a lamb sausage. With the different seasons and Easter coming up we will most likely introduce a lamb sausage. For thanksgiving we had a turkey sausage and sweet potato fries and cranberry sour cream. I am trying to make it interesting but other than that it is basically currywurst.

MEAT ME: What is your favorite?


Chef Kai: I go between the Hungarian and the Currywurst. Personally I can never go wrong with the currywurst but I also like what you have there. The Hungarian with the sweet mustard and the onions I could eat that everyday but I can’t afford it because I will gain weight.


MEAT ME: You mean just like me! (laughs)

Chef Kai: At the same time this is not something you eat everyday (even though some people in Germany do) but there is not high fructose corn syrup in it and there really aren’t any ingredients in there that are bad for you. Fried food to a degree is not that bad for you. It’s not like these French fries are soaked in bad oil we change the oil every few days, the onion is a natural product the same with the sausages its an all natural product there are no nitrates in it. It is all those preservatives that America really has a problem with. I do my best to avoid it. Your Diet Coke that’s the worst. When you start introducing those artificial sweeteners into your diet is when you’re really fucked. I learned about all this from my nutrition classes. A little sugar goes along way. It all really comes down to portion control.

What are you waiting for? We have a little piece of authentic German culture right here in our own LA backyard. You owe it to yourself to take advantage of it.

You can check out Authentic German Currywurst of Los Angeles at:
http://www.currywurstus.com/
Facebook http://www.facebook.com/currywurstus
Twitter https://twitter.com/#!/currywurstus

Think GERMISH,
MEAT ME
aka Sean Rice