Passau Tourism
Spätzle, Pepper, and a whole lot of Teamwork
Julia Lang did it. She simply dared to do it. She quit her job as an architect. She bought a small food truck. She took it to the weekly market and sold Spätzle*. Four years later, Julia Lang is standing in her own restaurant, "Julis Spätzlerei" in the Grabengasse in Passau. In the back of the kitchen, the dough is being kneaded. This is for the Spätzle that Julia Lang and her team sell here now. Still handmade, but in much larger quantities, for many satisfied guests, six days a week.
“I had nice colleagues, a great office. But I just wanted to do something different," the 31-year-old says. Spätzle, "that could work well, that is not very common yet," Julia Lang thought to herself when she came up with her food truck plan. For weeks, she fine-tuned the recipe - and the technique. "I tried a press, a grater, and a Spätzlehexe*," she says. Today, Julia Lang works with a restaurant grater, and the dough is scraped into large stainless-steel tubs.
Back when she started, she found the food truck online in the small ads. Three times a week she used it at Passau's weekly market. Then one day, a Passau woman came to her stand and offered her her small store on the street Unterer Sand. Three months later, she took over the store. Another year and a half later, she moved to the current, larger premises in the Grabengasse.
Now, Julia Lang is the boss of ten colleagues. "It's very important to me that the team works well together," she says. And that they can work together when things get busy at peak times in the Spätzle factory. Julia Lang selects her ingredients carefully and buys them regionally. This applies to flour, cheese, herbs, and spices. And for the pepper, Julia Lang has set up her own little station in the restaurant. On a sideboard, several mills with different varieties can be used by her guests to season their Spätzle to their liking.
As much love as Julia Lang puts into her store, the demand for the food truck is still there. It's back. Her colleagues have convinced her to take it on the road again this year. To stand at events, at private parties. At markets. Just like in the beginning. Only no longer alone, but with a team.
More information at www.julis-spaetzlerei.de
* Spätzle are traditional egg pasta very common and popular in the South of Germany and Austria. The Spätzlehexe is a special device used to grate the fresh pasta into the typical Spätzle form. Spätzle can be served as a side dish with meat or traditionally as Käsespätzle with a whole lot of delicious cheese and fried onions – it is worth a try!
