Arrowhead's Chef Pirhofer talks food, Oktoberfest fun

WHEATON – From Saturday through Oct. 6, Arrowhead Bar and Restaurant will be filled with pretzels, wursts, schnitzels and lots of beer for its annual Oktoberfest.

In Wheaton, much like in Munich, the event will be a celebration of beer and food, the latter of which will be provided by Executive Chef Alan Pirhofer, who has commandeered the Wheaton Park District’s restaurant since 2008.

“Oktoberfest always drew people,” Pirhofer said of his previous restaurant experience. “It’s just a happy time all about eating and drinking. That’s the reason for Oktoberfest.”

Pirhofer got his start in the culinary world while traveling and working in the Alsace and Paris regions of France. He then apprenticed at Cafe Du Midi, a French restaurant in Chicago, before serving at an array of four star restaurants in the area.

Despite being steeped in French styles of cooking, German food has always been of interest as well, he said. His Austrian and Polish mother and grandmother often made German food at home, an inspiration for his Oktoberfest fare.

After working succesfully at multiple restaurants, he decided to take on the challenge of overhauling the food at Arrowhead.

“Restaurants come and go. They open, they close. The last restaurant I was at, Erba, was on the cover of Chicago Magazine in 2006 as the best new restaurant and best dessert,” he said. “It closed within the year.”

Now, he focuses on providing a variety of fresh, seasonal comfort foods, ranging from burgers and nachos to steak and seafood.

Steve Glass, the director of food and beverage at Arrowhead, said that Pirhofer’s presence and skills have helped drive the restaurant to recent success.

“He’s one of the leaders for the whole facility,” Glass said. “I’ve been doing this myself for more than 25 years, and there are bad chefs and there are chefs that are great at making great food and chefs that are great about organizing things. It’s hard to find a chef that does both of those last two, and he does.”

Glass said that Pirhofer’s menu is also the reason that the restaurant’s Oktoberfest celebrations have grown steadily throughout the past four years. Aside from sausage plates and pretzels, Pirhofer will serve schnitzel, Rhine Style trout and a dish that the menu simply describes as a “ginormous pork shank,” among others.

“I think Oktoberfest is certainly a fun time, and people think of beer and sausages and things like that,” Glass said. “Not as many people get exposed to a larger array of authentic German food. Alan has created a huge following for some of these dishes.”

Pirhofer said that everything on the menu is as authentic as he could make it.

“If you go to a grandma’s home in Germany, this is the food you’re going to have,” he said.