I’m not particularly picky or discerning at all when it comes to restaurants, but I also found Wursthall to be mediocre. I didn’t try the sausages, so maybe that was my mistake.

Yes, mediocre and derivative.

Yeah, see Kenji's comment on /r/seriouseats [0]:

> I am not an owner any longer! I gave my shares to my former Sous chef Erik who still lives in the area. My involvement at Wursthall is only a friendly one, not a business one at this point.

However, in the same thread Kenji also says the following [1]:

> it’s still my recipes (and one of Stella’s!) there, as well as quite a few Serious Eats-inspired techniques.

[0] https://reddit.com/r/seriouseats/comments/oszuh0/made_it_to_...

[1] https://reddit.com/r/seriouseats/comments/oszuh0/made_it_to_...