Guten Tag!
Local speciality eatery changes hands; Lowries to add weekends
David Lowrie, left, and wife, Judit Lowrie, recently purchased Restaurant Linderhof in Farragut from Aaron Schmissrauter.
The Lowries closed on the restaurant ownership July 2.
“The transition was seamless,” Schmissrauter said.
“I think they’re great,” he added about the new owners. “I think they have the stuff.”
Schmissrauter purchased Restaurant Linderhof in 1999, when it was located at Farragut Towne Square, “Ingles shopping center,” off Kingston Pike. He moved the business to its current location in six years ago.
But now, he has decided to move forward to other things.
“I’ve always kind of considered myself the tenant of the restaurant,” Schmissrauter said. “The restaurant, in and of itself, is its own animal. Much like a large company that has a chairman of the board, my 10-year mark was coming up and it was time for a new chair.”
He heard from the broker in January, and that broker introduced him to the Lowries that same month.
“This couple that came along,” he said, “they were just so nice and charming. I just thought they truly got it.
“It was time to take them up on their offer and move forward.”
“We had been looking to buy
a restaurant since December 2017,” said Judit Lowrie, who once had lived as a refugee in Germany.
“We first found the restaurant online,” David Lowrie said. “We decided we wanted to make a change in our lives and do something different.”
David, a respiratory therapist, and Judit, a nurse, saw other
locations, but when they came and had lunch at Restaurant
Linderhof in January, Judit said, “At that moment, we said, ‘Yep. That’s it.’”
“We found something that had some class to it,” David added. “It has great character and great food.”
The Lowries moved to Tennessee May 15.
Judit brings Eastern European culture to the business.
“She’s more than capable of becoming the next face of the restaurant and carrying the concept forward,” Schmissrauter said.
“I think I did a lot to bring it up a notch, and I think these people can bring it to the next level,” he added.
“I feel good (about selling the restaurant).”
The Lowries do not plan on making major changes — they already are looking to plan this year’s Oktoberfest — but David said patrons might expect to find cuisine from Romania, Hungary and other Eastern European countries on the menu.
Judit was born in Transylvania to Hungarian parents. When the Soviet Union fell in 1991, a revolution took place in Romania.
“Right after the revolution, we moved to Germany and lived as refugees in Germany for eight years,” Judit said.
Then her ex-husband won a green card through a diversification lottery program and they moved to the United States.
She met David in 2007 and they married in 2014.
The couple also plans to “keep the ambience of the entertainment,” Schmissrauter said.
While the weekday hours will remain the same — from 4 to 9 p.m., Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, and from 4 to 10 p.m., Friday — they are adding weekend hours.
Those hours will be from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., Saturday, and from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., Sunday.
For more information about Restaurant Linderhof, call 865-675-8700.
