Schmidt’s Restaurant is keeping it all in the family

Schmidt’s Sausage Haus and Restaurant stays relevant and in the limelight

A pre-Civil War era village stands in contempt of Columbus’ progressively modern downtown and 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 publicity for their menu of traditional German and American cuisine, where sauerkraut, potato salad and bratwurst sit alongside hamburgers, owner Geoff Schmidt said 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 item a person can’t get anywhere else. 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.

To be sure, not everybody who eats at Schmidt’s enjoys the food. Inexperienced diners may want to try the buffet or the Old World Sausage Sampler to get a feel for Schmidt’s.

“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 in a phone interview.

The German beer, Warsteiner, is the most popular brand. “The w is pronounced with a v,” Justice said.

If a customer is not too full from their entree, it may be time for a cream puff, which Schmidt’s also features at their Ohio State Fair food stand.

The cream puff is a half pound of whipped cream filling in a thin baked shell and is popular enough to have its own Facebook Web page with 913 fans.

Jeannine Ginsburg, of Philadelphia, Pa., 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 Ohio State University.

“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 Leonard worked there in 1979, he said in a phone interview.

“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, since livestock was not permitted within the city limits. The Schmidts then opened their restaurant in the stable, Graichen said in a phone interview.

“[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 it 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,” she 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?’”

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, associate professor of German, said that the food at Schmidt’s does not strike him as particularly German and that if it did he might have returned.

"To claim that you are doing German cuisine is already a really broad statement,” said Hammermeister, a German national teaching for OSU. “The food that I experienced [at Schmidt’s] was like a Disneyland version of German food.”

German food is regional, said teaching assistant Charlie Vannette, who teaches German at OSU.

A sausage in Germany is like a hamburger in the U.S., a person can get one anytime, said Vannette, a former tour guide in Berlin, Germany.

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, along with 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,” Schmidt said.

Occasionally, customers do have to wait awhile, especially when there is a live band Wednesday through Saturday.

St. Patrick’s Day is the next big event for Schmidt’s, he said.

“People are out to celebrate,” Schmidt said. “When it’s St. Patrick’s Day, no matter if you’re German, everybody’s Irish.”

For Extra Credit: A critique of journalism schools having students fill old professional reporter beats

The original article discusses how journalism school students are taking on beats for free that professional reporters once filled.

The article makes the point that newspapers cannot afford to fill these beats and people really do not have interest in a lot of them.

There is nothing unethical about a student journalist covering a beat for free. A student journalist who has an unpaid internship with a newspaper may write articles for free.

It is widely known that the newspaper industry and print industries are hurting. If students can write articles for free and help a newspaper and in turn get clips for their resume, then they should.

As a journalism student, I would not see anything unethical about writing for a print or online media for free. It is gaining experience, which in the journalism industry is invaluable.

The Web site Oakland North is completely dedicated to publishing news about an otherwise ignore neighborhood in California. If newspapers cannot afford to cover them, and would not if they could afford to then students should be allowed to take the reigns.

As an editor or reporter, I could see why this would be troubling.

As a reporter, I would see student journalists as scabs.

Big newspapers do not need to use seasoned veterans, who ask for adequate wages, to write stories if they can get the stories written for little or nothing. However, professional reporters have earned their wages through years of experience.

Reporters are watching themselves be replaced by younger reporters with little to no experience in an industry that has always been based on experience and building a reputation.

As an editor, I would see student journalists as making my job harder.

Editing is difficult enough when working with experienced journalists.

A student journalist may have little to no experience in news writing. The editors will have to work harder without expecting a pay increase for their work.

The ethics of journalism in a social media world

Social media has blurred the line between the ethical and unethical, especially for journalists, which is discussed in this article.

Journalists are told not to have a political bias and if they do to keep it to themselves. They are told that they should not put Obama bumper stickers on their cars or vote in primary elections.

So when journalists are creating their personal Facebook page and it asks them what their political affiliation is the same rule should apply.

National Public Radio released its guidelines in October.

The NPR guidelines say, "Don't behave any differently online than you would in any other public setting," which i think can be applied to any ethical questions in a social media setting.

Even if a journalist considers himself or herself "kind of a Commie," that's not something everyone should know.

It is difficult to keep friends from posting exposing photos on social media websites. Good friends will understand if they are asked to remove them. Bad friends can be unfriended on social networking sites.

The old cliche is that a picture is worth a thousand words. What is less known is that a thousand words cannot always make up for a picture. Just ask Michael Phelps.

Once a photo is out there it is impossible to get back. Journalists need to consider the organizations they represent.

Like Gina Chen, who claims to be a 20 year veteran journalist, says on her blog, "Don’t put anything on the Internet ... that you’d be embarrassed to see on the front page of The New York Times."

YouTube brings a whole new angle. While a picture is worth a thousand words, a moving picture's worth cannot be estimated.

When it comes to ethics the Society of Professional Journalists know what is right and wrong.

It says in the SPJ code of ethics that journalists shouldn't participate in activities that hurt their integrity.

At least don't let a buddy videotape it and put it on YouTube.

Do not assume that because something does not seem like it is on the record it is not on the record. If it is written, it can be copied and pasted. If it can be copied and pasted, it can end up anywhere.

On social media sites, friending sources is always risky. What if that source needs anonymity down the line. Once they are friended, that cannot be assured.

Friending bosses can be risky. It is laced with potential awkwardness. It is probably better to keep friends and superiors separate.

Just as journalists should not call themselves "kind of a Commie," they should not openly celebrate the victory of an elected official. It is an obvious bias and reflects poorly on the journalist and their organization.

The ethical standards set for journalists before social media existed need to be upheld. Just as it is not a legal defense to plead ignorance to a law, it should not be an ethical defense to plead ignorance to the ethics code.