Update 02.29.24: This story has been updated with additional information about Heads and Tails Barbecue, the new restaurant taking over the Gaumenkitzel space.
Gaumenkitzel, the German slow food restaurant on Berkeley’s San Pablo Avenue, will close at the end of March after 13 years in business.
The owners, husband and wife Kai Flache and Anja Voth, confirmed the closure and have posted a note in the restaurant’s window explaining their decision.
“Despite our steady growth after the COVID-19 pandemic, we have faced persistent challenges in finding and retaining experienced team members,” the letter states. “This has caused a strain on our operations and overall well-being. As we did not anticipate an improvement in this situation in the near future, we made the difficult decision to sell our business while it is performing well.”
Nosh reached out for more details, and Voth said she was too emotional to do a proper interview, adding via email: “We are receiving a lot of feedback and messages from patrons about how sad they are and that they hope I will find a new smaller location to be home for Gaumenkitzel and friends.”
Voth said they are exploring their options, but no decisions have been made.
Gaumenkitzel, which, according to the restaurant’s website, “is an old fashioned word for ‘special treat,’ and translates literally into ‘tickle your taste buds,'” opened in January 2011, and quickly gained a devoted following, especially among, but not limited to, German expats in the area. Inspired by the slow food movement as well as the way she was raised, Voth made everything from scratch. In the early days, she frequently consulted her “oma” (grandmother) by phone. Voth milled the wheat berry flour for the freshly baked bread served at Gaumenkitzel breakfasts.
The restaurant also makes its own yogurt, jam, mayonnaise, pickles, tomato sauce, and fruit juices. Dishes like schnitzel and spätzle were menu mainstays. Gaumenkitzel also appeared on KQED’s popular show, “Check Please, Bay Area,” and won numerous awards as a green business; it was also cited on Zagat’s “best of” East Bay lists numerous times.
Voth and Flache are Hamburg natives. Flache came to Berkeley first, and Voth later followed. Flache, who works in construction, designed the restaurant’s homey interior.
“Growing up, Voth was the family’s designated jam-maker drawing from the bounty of their fruit trees,” Nosh contributor Anna Mindess wrote about the restaurant in 2011. “While she was studying linguistics at the University of Hamburg, she polished her culinary skills working as a bartender, breakfast cook and pastry maker.”
Voth shared messages from customers lamenting the closure with Nosh.
Doris Sloan, a 98-year-old customer, wrote a note that reads in part: “We have celebrated so many birthdays and other special occasions with you, enjoyed so many Mushroom Spätzle and Schnitzel und Stollen….Selfishly, I hope that you will come back to some way of feeding us your fantastic food – von meine Heimat. You will be sorely missed by many people.”
One customer, Caroline Krewson, said she routinely traveled with Gaumenkitzel goodies: “We are so sad to see the Gaumenkitzel closing! Where will I get my delicious dinners from in the future? For several years while working and living in Virginia I took my beloved Kaiserschmarrn with me on airplane flights to enjoy back on the East Coast.”
When asked about future plans, Voth wrote in the email that she would take a much-needed rest first, but that “opening a smaller place to be home for Gaumenkitzel and friends would be splendid, and I am exploring my options. Another option could be joining a team in one of Berkeley’s great food locations.”
“I very much love what I am doing right now,” Voth added. “Working with wonderful suppliers to get fresh, organic, and if possible, locally sourced ingredients. Transforming them to wholesome and grounded dishes that bring a smile to people’s faces. Having all these interesting and often moving conversations with them. Working with a team that shares these precious moments in life. I know, I probably sound romantic, but I try to focus on the bright side of life, and food can bring people together, enabling them to open up and to share feelings tied to the past and today.”
The Gaumenkitzel property at 2121 San Pablo Ave. has been acquired by Rick Stolle of Oakland, and he has partnered with Drew Majoulet, who has managed bars in Austin and San Francisco. The new restaurant will be called Heads and Tails Barbecue, and there are plans to get a distillery license to produce spirits in-house. The partners have tentative plans to open at the beginning of May.
Stolle was born in Oregon and his dad was in the U.S. Army. The family moved to Germany early in Stolle’s life, and he apprenticed in German restaurants as his first taste of the food industry. Later on, he owned and operated four Burger King restaurants on Vancouver Island. Stolle moved to California in 2010, and, after spending time working in finance, he said he is ready to combine his business and restaurant experience. The Gaumenkitzel space, with an ample kitchen and high ceilings that can accommodate a still, was perfect for his vision.
“It’s going to be a smokehouse barbecue with a full commercial indoor smoker in the kitchen for creating my favorite style of food — a blend of Texas-style barbecue and California inspiration,” Stolle said. “It will be a bit different, but with a lot of the typical American flavors people are used to.”
The plan is to not only offer a variety of meats by the pound or half-pound, but also offer sandwiches, tacos and other, smaller plates, for sampling the barbecued meats.
“We are focused on making honest, slow-cooked food, in line with what Anja and Kai were doing,” Stolle said, adding that he and Majoulet want Heads and Tails to be a “vibrant neighborhood meeting space.”
Voth said the current plan is for Gaumenkitzel’s last day to be March 24.
In the closing note, Voth and Flache cited the prep cooks, saying they stayed open out of loyalty to them, and thanked their customers: “We enjoyed our daily conversations with you, the friendly greetings called across the street, the excitement we shared over the beautiful monarch butterflies feeding on milkweed in our small side yard, and countless other pleasant memories.”
