In Columbus’ progressively modern downtown stands a pre-Civil War era village. At the heart of that village is a restaurant.
Customers kick the old bricks of German Village’s East Kossuth Street to walk through Schmidt’s Sausage Haus and Restaurant’s front door. Inside, the sausage and dessert display cases greet patrons along with the host or hostess.
Open since 1967, Schmidt’s gained national recognition for its menu of traditional German and American cuisine, where sauerkraut, potato salad and bratwurst sit alongside hamburgers, said owner Geoff Schmidt in a phone interview.
“There’s so much to Schmidt’s,” he said. “There’s the family. There’s the history of the business. There’s an unusual building in the middle of an unusual area, being German Village. It’s a food item you can’t get everywhere else.”
The Bahama Mama is one such item. A Schmidt’s original recipe sausage, it is made of beef and pork, according to Schmidt’s menu.
When biting into it, one can taste the combination of hickory-smoked beef and pork, along with the subtle heat of the secret spices.
“I love the Bahama Mama with kraut and mustard,” said Greg Williamson, who tries to eat at Schmidt’s every couple of months.
“You’ve got to try the Bahama Mama patty on the pretzel bun, it’s outstanding.”
Schmidt’s comfortable atmosphere is part of what makes Williamson take the hourlong trip, he said in an e-mail.
The brick walls and dark wooden floors and furniture dim Schmidt’s dining rooms, which maze around the German Autobahn Buffet. The restaurant is intentionally reminiscent of an old German beer hall.
Schmidt’s carries beer from large breweries to microbreweries. It has eight beers on tap, manager Teresa Justice said.
The German beer, Warsteiner, is the most popular brand.
“The ‘W’ is pronounced with a “V,'” Justice said.
If customers are not too full from their entrees, it might be time for a cream puff, which Schmidt’s also features at its Ohio State Fair food stand.
The cream puff is a half pound of whipped cream filling in a thin-baked shell, and it is popular enough to have its own Facebook page with 913 fans.
Jeannine Ginsburg of Philadelphia is a Facebook fan and has a cream puff a day when she is at the Ohio State Fair, she said in an e-mail.
“I hope they never change a thing about their giant cream puffs, and I wish I could get them [in Philadelphia],” said Ginsburg, who first ate at Schmidt’s in 1975 while attending OSU.
“It seems like the cream puffs are getting smaller,” said Jeff Leonard, a former employee and fan of Schmidt’s on Facebook.
“That was one of my jobs, a cream puff stuffer.”
Current owners Andrew and Geoff Schmidt were general managers of Schmidt’s when he worked there in 1979.
“They had several satellite stores in the ‘80s,” Leonard said.
Now, Schmidt’s current and only location is as unusual as its food.
J. Fred Schmidt’s Packing Co., which opened in 1886, originally used the building as a stable and has passed it down through five generations, according to Schmidt’s Web site.
“It was owned by the Schmidt family and used for their business purposes,” said Jody Graichen, director of historic preservation programs for German Village Society.
In the 1960s, Columbus city code changes forced the packing company to move because livestock was not permitted within the city limits. The Schmidts then opened their restaurant in the stable, Graichen said.
“[The Schmidts] have been incredible supporters of the neighborhood, as a whole, and its early revitalization,” she said.
Once called the Old South End, it was renamed German Village during its restoration in the 1960s. German immigrants established the area in the 1840s, she said.
German Village, located south of downtown Columbus, declined during World War I. One-third of German Village was demolished when Interstate 70 was built. The German Village Society, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary, stopped the city from leveling the entire area, she said.
Schmidt’s keeps German Village tied to its roots, she said.
“No one is speaking German in German Village anymore,” Graichen said. “Schmidt’s is it as far as German cuisine and that … stereotypical Bavarian experience.”
It is a landmark in German Village, she said.
“The running joke for anyone moving into German Village is they immediately have to learn exactly where Schmidt’s is,” she said.
“You’re stopped on a daily basis by tourists … saying, ‘How do I get to Schmidt’s?'”
But not everyone loves the Sausage Haus’ location or food.
“I would go there more often to eat if parking wasn’t such an issue,” said Gina McCall, who has eaten at Schmidt’s since the mid-late 1970s. “It’s hard to find parking spots around German Village that are close to the restaurant.”
Kai Hammermeister, an associate professor of German at OSU, said the food at Schmidt’s does not strike him as particularly German, but if it did, he might have returned.
“To claim that you are doing German cuisine is already a really broad statement,” Hammermeister said. “The food that I experienced [at Schmidt’s] was like a Disneyland version of German food.”
German food is regional, said teaching assistant and former tour guide of Berlin, Charlie Vannette.
A sausage in Germany is like a hamburger in the U.S., a person can get one anytime, he said.
Schmidt’s recently caught the media’s eye.
The Travel Channel showcased the restaurant on “Man v. Food,” a show that sends host Adam Richman to find great places to eat. The show was in Columbus and featured Schmidt’s in addition to Thurman Cafe and the Ohio Deli. The episode, which first aired Dec. 10, 2008, featured Schmidt’s Bahama Mama, the cream puffs and the German Autobahn Buffet, according to the Travel Channel Web site.
“They were here for eight-and-a-half hours rolling film,” Schmidt said. However, having a film crew at the restaurant did not hinder business.
In January, the Travel Channel featured Schmidt’s on its “101 Tastiest Places to Chow Down.” Schmidt’s ranked No. 83, he said.
Schmidt said that the Travel Channel contacted them about a show in the future featuring their cream puffs and their fudge, which is sold at Schmidt’s Fudge Haus.
Schmidt’s, which is open every day, is busier since its TV exposure, even with the record snow fall in February, and has never taken reservations, Schmidt said.
It does not fit their business model of getting people in and out quickly, he said.
“We would not be able to survive on reservations,” Geoff Schmidt said.
Occasionally, customers do have to wait awhile, especially when there is a live band Wednesday through Saturday.
