Schmidt’s Restaurant, celebrated for its brats and cream puffs, has thrived as a family business for 44 years
Cream puffs. German beer. Bahama Mamas.
It has to be Schmidt’s Restaurant und Sausage Haus, the German Village dining spot that is the heart of the Schmidt family business, which is celebrating its 125th anniversary this year.
The family business began as a meat-packing company in 1886 but has grown into a restaurant, now 44 years old. The restaurant serves 25,000 people each month, sells more than 14,000 cream puffs at more than 50 festivals every summer, caters hundreds of events each year and sells sausages in stores nationwide.
Schmidt’s has been featured on the Travel Channel’s Man vs. Food and the Food Network’s Best of Ohio.
But Schmidt’s is the restaurant that almost wasn’t.
Eric Albrecht | DISPATCH The founder of Schmidt’s Restaurant und Sausage Haus, George Schmidt, 90, is surrounded by his children, who operate the German Village business. From left are John Schmidt, Linda Sue “Susie” Schmidt, Sandy Karram, Geoff Schmidt, Georganne Hedrick and Andrew Schmidt
In 1966, the 81-year-old J. Fred Schmidt Meat Packing House went out of business.
George Schmidt, Fred’s grandson, planned to move to Florida to open a travel agency. “I had to feed my family,” he said.
The Ohio State Fair changed his mind. Schmidt’s had been a food vendor at the fair since 1914, a tradition he continued even in uncertain times.
Sales were brisk, so he decided to open a deli in 1967 in the packing house’s old livery stable at the corner of Kossuth Street and Pearl Alley — one of the few pieces of real estate that wasn’t liquidated when the business closed.
He was sure the deli would be profitable.
“At the time, Ohio Bell had their headquarters right around the corner, and even before the doors opened, (workers) were coming by and asking when we were going to open,” Schmidt said.
Schmidt’s was a little more modest then, serving mostly sandwiches. But the menu quickly expanded to include the German home-cooked specialties the restaurant is known for today.
Most of the recipes came from the German women who worked as cooks in the restaurant. Betty Tressult contributed the recipe for Schmidt’s now-famous cream puff.
The entire Schmidt family worked in the restaurant to turn it from a sandwich shop into a landmark. “At a very young age, all of my kids were introduced into the restaurant, whether dishwashing or cashiering,” Schmidt said. “We all worked together. Everyone participated.
“I’m very proud of what Schmidt’s has become, and I’m thankful for my family,” said Schmidt, now 90.
George’s six children — Geoff, John, Andrew, Sandy, Georganne and Linda Sue — are the fourth generation to run the family business.
Andrew, who now runs the catering division with sister Georganne, said he got his start in the family business as a middle-schooler, washing dishes.
“Most summers, we worked at the restaurant,” he said. “I always looked forward to working with my mom and dad on Saturday nights. After we closed, my parents always took us to the Perkins pancake house at midnight. It felt like the middle of the night.”
It was a labor of love with many hands participating.
“Work was really a family-and-friend thing,” said Geoff Schmidt, noting that his football buddies were often hired as cooks and dishwashers. Geoff was the very first busboy, but he worked his way up to sausage maker. Now, he’s the company president.
“The hours were long, but it was very fun.”
The restaurant’s popularity grew.
The Schmidts helped organize the city’s first Oktoberfest in 1967 and have been instrumental in keeping it alive. They opened the Fudge Haus next door in 1971. And on March 6, 1986, Columbus celebrated Bahama Mama Day, as declared by city officials, in honor of the sausage that Schmidt’s is credited with inventing.
But not everything has been rosy.
At one point, Schmidt’s had six locations in central Ohio, in German Village, Reynoldsburg, Upper Arlington, the Ohio Center, Westerville and near Morse Road. The multiple restaurants turned out to be a costly mistake. All but the original closed.
“We just weren’t successful running restaurants outside of German Village,” Geoff Schmidt said.
Then in 1983, the German Village Schmidt’s was engulfed in flames.
The restaurant didn’t open its doors again for nearly five months.
“I remember driving into the village at 2 in the morning and seeing the glow (of the fire) and the smoke from the other side of town,” said John Schmidt, who leads the family business’s festivals division. “That was a scary time.”
There was a silver lining, he said.
The insurance settlement was enough to rebuild the restaurant, and the fire unwittingly led to the creation of the company’s catering division.
After the fire, they set up a tent in the parking lot and served patrons there. And “instead of turning away the banquet business from upstairs, we asked folks if we could bring Schmidt’s to them,” said Andrew Schmidt. “That went so well, we created an entire catering division.”
The hard times seem well behind them. The company has grown to a full catering division, a festival division and the restaurant. In addition, Schmidt’s sausage is sold at food retailers nationwide. They even have their own packing house again, churning out Schmidt’s sausages right here in central Ohio.
They’re also grooming a new generation to take over the business. George’s grandsons, Matt and Kyle Schmidt, are assistant managers at the restaurant.
Schmidt’s success, George Schmidt said, is based on a very simple principle: “Put out the best product you know how, and then keep it steady.”
His kids? They’re just trying to make sure they keep it that way.
“It’s my father’s concept, so we can’t take any credit for that,” Geoff Schmidt said with a laugh. “Our job as brothers and sisters is to not screw up what he started.”
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