Popular seafood restaurant known for their catfish is expanding to the Gulf Coast

A popular Louisiana eatery famous for Thin Fried Catfish will soon expand closer to the Mississippi border.

Middendorf's Slidell location is set to open in the spring of 2019, according to a report from NOLA.com.

Sidney Fontenot, St. Tammany Parish government's director of planning, told NOLA.com that building permits have been issued for the new restaurant, which will be located just off Oak Harbor Boulevard near the Interstate 10 interchange.

Some aspects of the second Middendorf’s will be different, according a 2017 article from The New Orleans Advocate. The Slidell location won’t be on the water, as the original Middendorf’s has its own pier and screened, waterfront deck on the edge of Pass Manchac.

Located in the small town of Manchac between Lake Ponchatrain and Lake Maurepas, Middendorf's first opened in 1934 run by Louis and Josie Middendorf. Josie came up with the recipe for Thin Fried Catfish, which kept the customers coming back again and again, according to the restaurant's website. The restaurant stayed mostly in the Middendorf family until 2007.

Middendorf's was purchased from the family by Horst and Karen Pfeifer, who had previous restaurant experience at Bella Luna in the French Quarter until Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005.

Pfeifer told The New Orleans Advocate in 2017 he appreciated the challenge of remaking something people already love, primarily because he’s done it on a different scale at the original Middendorf’s.

“Even if we kept everything the same, there will always be some who will say it’s not the same,” he said in 2017. “When we had two dining rooms, there were people who said the food wasn’t the same in both.”

The original restaurant is located at 30160 US-51, Akers, LA 70421.

This story was originally published July 6, 2018 at 2:46 PM.