All in the family: Redwood City’s Gourmet Haus Staudt bridges past and present

Volker Staudt, son of Luci and Lothar Staudt, now owns the Redwood City fixture at 2615 Broadway with his wife, Mary Ann. Though he was a teenager when his parents started their business, he remembers the turns their business has taken over the years well. When customers started driving from all over California to come to their grocery store, Volker Staudt said they started asking his parents to offer food for their long journeys.

“People were coming in and asking my dad, ‘can’t you just cook me a bratwurst or something? I drove down from Redding just to get groceries,’” he said.

Even in the eight years Volker Staudt, 59, and Mary Ann Staudt, 54, have owned the business, they watched it transform yet again to meet the changes they have witnessed in Redwood City. They have extended the business’ hours and expanded its beer menu, which now includes at least 20 beers on tap, over the years to offer a place where locals can meet for a drink. They have seen people meet on first dates and have even hosted a wedding at their business for a couple who went on several dates there and now bring their children to see them. For Volker and Mary Ann Staudt, the diversity their business fosters is a source of pride.

“We’ve got these 90-year-olds sitting at this table next to completely tattooed guys,” said Volker Staudt.

Perhaps no one knows how to adapt to changes better than the couple, who took the plunge to take over Luci and Lothar Staudt’s business when they were ready to retire in 2009. The couple had reached their 70s, and had made a name for themselves as the business owners who connected Redwood City with German pantry items, such as gummy candies, specialty chocolate, mustards and seasoning, among other branded items only found in Germany. After a few tries, they found they couldn’t sell their business easily, so they asked their two children to consider taking it over.

At the time, Volker Staudt had no intention of deviating from his 27-year career in commercial construction.

“I said to myself, ‘I’m not going to change career paths in my life to go do a German grocery store right now, it’s not really in my cards,’” he said.

But after some convincing by Mary Ann Staudt, they agreed to take ownership of the business for a year. The Redwood City natives, who met when Mary Ann Staudt started working for his parents’ flower shop at age 15, knew the meaning the business held for his parents.

“It just felt like the right thing to do,” said Mary Ann Staudt.

The couple quickly got to work, putting their heads down to figure out how to maintain the variety of German goods they sold in the front of the store facing Main Street, and also grow their restaurant, which would eventually include a beer garden facing Sequoia Station in the back of the property. Three years after they took over, they realized the business had taken on a life of its own, supporting several dedicated employees and serving more and more new customers.

“Then you started looking at it differently, and it’s really not about you anymore, it’s about everybody,” said Mary Ann Staudt.

Though Luci Staudt, 81, and Lothar Staudt, 84, no longer own the business they started over 40 years ago, they are regulars at the store, just blocks away from their home. Though Volker Staudt said his mother won’t take pay, she still works on Mondays and Saturdays, and the couple also meets friends at the restaurant for their weekly stammtisch, a German term for the regular meetings among friends, every Saturday at noon.

“All their friends come and hang out and they all have lunch together and spend an hour and a half or two hours together,” said Mary Ann Staudt. “So people sit over here and go, ‘what is happening over there?”

Volker and Mary Ann Staudt may also be priming one of their sons, Grant, as an understudy of the business. The 27-year-old said he grew up pretending he worked at the store and would instead play board games with his grandparents. He now helps them manage the business and payroll for the more than 20 employees working there.

“It’s still a family thing, everyone is related, or wants to be related,” said Mary Ann Staudt. “It kind of makes it fun.”

Gourmet Haus Staudt is at 2615 Broadway. Visit gourmethausstaudt.com for store hours and more information.

anna@smdailyjournal.com

(650) 344-5200 ext. 102