After 30 years of serving fine dining dishes to Highlands, Wolfgang’s Restaurant & Wine Bistro is closing. New Year’s Eve 2024 will be their final day of business.
Owner and chef Wolfgang Green is ready to enjoy a trip to the Caribbean with his wife, Mindy, but he said it might take a little bit of time to get used to the idea that he’s retired.
“I may get antsy,” he said with a laugh. “It’s been 30 years, so, there’s mixed feelings. But it’s time to move on and smell the roses.”
He said running Wolfgang’s Restaurant & Wine Bistro was everything he wanted from his professional life.
“I’ve been in the restaurant business all my life,” he said. “It was always my goal to have my own place. That opportunity came along, and I took it.”
Wolfgang’s affinity for cooking was born through watching his mother do it all during his childhood in their native Germany. At 14 he got an apprentice job in the kitchen of a hotel there, which he described as a sort of trial by fire that got him ready to work other jobs in the culinary arts.
“I learned a lot quick,” he said. “I was 14 years old peeling carrots. So, I’ve come a long way since.”
In the years before finally moving to Highlands, Wolfgang traveled the world working various chef and restaurant jobs.
“I did my apprenticeship in Germany, then Jamaica, then back to Germany, then Bermuda, back to Jamaica, then Memphis, Baton Rouge, New Orleans, Dallas…”
They visited Highlands the first time in 1988. He and Mindy stayed for a year and got to know many of the restaurants and people in town, but it wasn’t time yet for them to move here as permanent residents.
They moved on again for several years and Wolfgang worked as the vice president of food and beverages for America Hawaii Cruises for two years, then went back to Dallas for a spell. Then it did come time to move to Highlands as full-time residents.
“I guess Highlands was calling,” he said. “We came back here on July 4, 1994, and we found this place here.”
Wolfgang’s travels informed the cuisine he served at the restaurant for years: German food, Jamaican food, some from New Orleans and some traditional dishes like seafood and steak.
The restaurant started with a small house area, onto which they gradually added more until its current iteration, which has several ornately-decorated dining rooms. The final add-on to the restaurant was the bistro area facing Main Street. Outside Wolfgang pointed to a tree that stretched well up beyond the roof of the building. “That tree was eight feet tall when we first opened.”
No two days at work were alike. Wolfgang described spending lots of time in the kitchen handling and overseeing the cooking and alternating that with talking to guests of the restaurant.
“We’ve had great customers,” Wolfgang said. “I like to meet with them, talk to them. I have a great relationship with several of them. I’m working the kitchen every night, but I got a chance to come out to the dining room.”
Not one to take all the credit, he said a big part of the restaurant’s success was several staff members who have been there for many years.
“We’ve been very fortunate to have good staff,” he said. “Both back of the house and servers, some have been with us many years. We’ve never had much turnover. I think that speaks for itself. Customers like to see the same faces. They’ll request specific servers when they come in. The front and the kitchen work together well.”
He said restaurant manager Jacque Taylor had particularly been an irreplaceable asset in keeping things running smoothly and compared the staff as a whole to a family.
Wolfgang said they’d always tried to balance appealing to the locals as well as visitors to town and “keep both happy.” They have always gotten along well with other businesses in town. He remembered the Old Edwards Inn’s debut in town about 20 years ago and said they had always been good community partners.
“We’ve been supporting Highlands and everybody for a long time,” he added. “It’s part of our mission to be a part of the community.”
Now with retirement on the horizon, he said he and Mindy were looking forward to traveling some more and “seeing places we haven’t had the chances to go to.” He said they planned to visit their daughters, who live in Washington DC and Dallas. And they want to go back to the Caribbean to see parts of the area they’ve never visited before.
“I think this year, we’ll be spending a lot more time on the beach,” he said.
The rest of the time, they’ll still be living in town as they have for years. “We’re going to miss Highlands, but we’re still going to be here.”