South County Cabinet-Maker Builds Space for Family

When Mehlville resident, , 51, walks in to places like Joey B’s or Imo’s, he can’t help but feel a certain sense of belonging. It’s a feeling of pride in knowing that he helped create part of what many South County residents have come to know as St. Louis institutions.

It has nothing to do with coveted recipes. He’s not the inventor of special cheese and none of these places credit him as the namesake.

Instead, Schweiss is the cabinet builder responsible for much of woodwork inside of these buildings.

“It’s very rewarding,” Schweiss said. “When I step back and look at what I’ve helped build... my kids won’t go to Joey B’s with me anymore.” 

It all began in 1998, when Schweiss bought the fledgling cabinet-making business from his father, who operated out of a barn near on Old Baumgartner Road.

Immediately, Schweiss began drumming up business at .

The client list is long and diverse and includes national notables such as Sea World and Busch Gardens. Schweiss also carries a local roster of not only restaurants, but Delmar Gardens and St. Catherine’s Parish. On the residential side, custom work is his forte.

“When I took over this business from my dad, he had a table saw. That’s basically all he had. I’ve acquired a lot of extra tools,” Schweiss said.

His first big purchase was a panel saw. 

All this new business and extra hardware took him from the red barn with no heat, to a much larger commercial space, located at 4501 Green Park Road in Mehlville.

Today, he enjoys a developed level of success.

“I think I’ve done pretty well over the years,” he said. “The key is to stay busy and make sure I’m doing things the right way. As long as the customers are happy, I’m happy.”

But this was far from what he anticipated for his life.

Schweiss graduated from Vianney High School in 1978 and went to Southeast Missouri State to study computer science. After college, he piddled with some sales work and even went to work to “use his degree.”

However, for a young family man, the attraction of stability won out over the uncertainty of the sales quota.

“Growing up, my dad didn’t have (a steady paycheck),” he said. “I said, ‘I’m never going to work for myself.’ That’s part of the reason I went to work for Dierberg’s.”

For 15 years, Schweiss worked as an assistant manager at the grocery store. But a reliable weekly stipend did not come without a few inherent sacrifices. Among them was the time spent away from his two daughters.

“My kids were small and I was working on the weekends,” Schweiss said. “One day, I asked my boss what he would do differently. He said ‘I’d try to go to my kids’ ballgames.’ That just got me to thinking, I should be doing that.”

Armed with the support and faith of his wife, Annette, 50, Schweiss set out to do just that.

“I figured, if I’m going to work seven days a week, I might as well do it for myself, on my own terms,” he said.

With his father’s impending retirement, cabinetry just seemed the next natural step.

“I think (Annette) would say we’ve done pretty well over the years,” he said.

Schweiss believes that staying small has been one of the keys to his success.

“I haven’t hired a bunch of guys and then had to lay them off,” he said.

And with the bulk of his work coming from repeat customers, he relies mostly on the tried and true method of advertising known widely as word of mouth. In fact, Schweiss doesn’t even have a website.

“(Customers) come to me because they heard about me. We do good work and we’re conscious about what we do,” he said. “I think they think, he does a good job... call Vince.”