Winzer Stube Serves "Oma's" Dishes

Joshua Schmidt grew up eating his grandma’s food in her home in Saarland Germany when the family would make their annual trip back to his mother’s home country.

Now the Hudson community is eating his grandmother’s food on a daily basis at the .

“I’m proud of this restaurant because it’s my family’s heritage and we use my grandmother’s recipes and people love the food just as much as we did when I was growing up,” he said.

Some of those popular items that made the transition from the “tabelle der Oma” to the restaurant menu are the veal strips, “any schnitzel,” Schmidt said and pfeffersteak.

As a family owned eatery the Schmidt family trains the cooks how to follow the traditional recipes and serve them to eager customers.

Other menu highlights are walleye with chili-lime butter, half duck with apricot merlot sauce and krautfleckerl. But what says Germany as much as a stein of beer served with Ursula’s Laugenbrezel—a giant soft pretzel? Maybe a freshly-made apple strudel with cream and butter?

The décor throughout the restaurant will also send diners over to the country of lederhosen and Martin Luther. Schmidt said the goal of the eatery is to “send customers to Germany.”

During some of the holidays is when that “travel” is easy to experience. Oktoberfest, he said, is an annual hit. Food specials, festive events and decorations all indicate a celebration of beer.

Initially the restaurant opened in 1999 and has been a mainstay ever since in Hudson.

Schmidt said the community, with its home-town supportive attitude, has helped sustain the restaurant.

“People here like to go to restaurants in town and have unique food, he said.