Bellairsia: Schuler's Restaurant

Schuler's Restaurant

Schuler’s is a restaurant in Marshall, Michigan.

History

The restaurant began life in 1909 when Albert Schuler, Sr. opened a restaurant on Main Street, which quickly expanded to include a bakery and a lunch counter. By the mid-1920s Albert had sold the property on Main Street and purchased the larger Royal Hotel and Restaurant at the northeast corner of Eagle and Green Streets – whose name was immediately changed to Schuler's. In 1934 Albert turned the management of the hotel over to his sons, Winston and Albert, Jr.

Winston ("Win") J. Schuler (1908-93) has a degree in history and was fresh from teaching when he began his work at his father’s 20-seat restaurant. Expansion was key: in 1940 the Frontier Room was added to the Marshall location and the adjacent building became a bowling alley. That didn’t play out the way it had been expected and, in 1946, was converted into the Centennial Room – a dining room with words of wisdom stenciled in Old English script on its ceiling beams. Another piece of the building, a former stable, was renovated in 1948 to become the Dickens Room, described on an era postcard as:

...giant hearthstones around a crackling fire; walls lined with familiar Dickens characters - this is the cozy atmosphere of old-world friendliness...

In 1952, Win introduced the original recipe for Bar-Scheeze, a spread consisting of cheese, horseradish and Worcestershire – part of Schuler's philosophy to offer guests something delicious as soon as seated.

The company expanded to other locations with similar Old World themes: the restaurant in Jackson also included references to Dickens, and the St. Joseph restaurant had a decor centered around the life and times of England’s celebrated Dr. Samuel Johnson. Back in the Marshall, the Dickens Room was remodeled in the 1970s and 80s to become the more contemporary Signature Room dining area.

In 1959, Hans Schuler, Win's son, joined the family business and was named Chairman and President of the company in 1970; his son, Larry, the fourth generation member of the Schuler family, joined in 1984.

The Eat It Detroit blog notes the uniqueness of its longevity:

According to the Family Firm Institute (FFI), nearly 70% of family-owned businesses fail before reaching the second generation, 88% fail by the third, and only about 3% survive to the fourth [1].

Schuler's was proclaimed a Michigan Historic site in 1977 [2].

Bellairs worked at Schuler’s in the late 1950s and though his time there was apparently short, it was none the less memorable for some. Ann LaPietra related a story of celebrating John’s birthday at her bookstore, the kids’ place, in the late 1980s and having two older gentlemen argue about whether Bellairs was the best or worst busboy the restaurant ever had [3]. Hans Schuler, who was in the same graduation class as John, says the future author was indeed a bus boy but “always found it difficult to carry a tray, which was, of course, one of the primary requirements of the job. [4]” College friend Alfred Myers remembers Bellairs working there in the summer of 1957, “but as a host in the lobby, wearing a suit and tie. He either didn’t like the job, had a run-in with Win Schuler, or both - but he quit that job in late summer, never to return. [5]"

Bellairs Corpus

Schuyler’s Restaurant in New Zebedee is where Lucius Mickleberry, the president of the Capharnaum County Magician’s Society, met Immanuel Vanderhelm for lunch and discovered how evil and powerful a magician Vanderhelm really was (The Doom of the Haunted Opera, 79).