The great city of Round Top is no exception. You can have your breakfast at Tiffany's...but on Saturday, you better save lunch for Ronnie and Liz Klump’s barbecue. I’m a sausage wrap man myself. Mad Hatter Tea Room serves steaks big enough for two, cooked over an open fire.
You can get fresh deli sandwiches at the Round Top Mercantile and fudge at the Round Top General Store, pigs and pastry at the CaliCo Bakery...the culinary possibilities are endless.
Round Top is filled with fine restaurants, catering to the most discriminating palate. However, only one establishment has been part of the community since July 9, 1947...the world famous Round Top Cafe.
That’s when Pete Kraus decided to buy the cafe that Charlie Muesse had just built...before it even opened. Pete was nineteen at the time and his father had just died. The judge gave him control of his father’s estate and he bought the Round Top Cafe for $3,000. He was too young to get a beer license, so he talked Lancelot Neidig into going partners with him. The two sold 20 cent hamburgers and 10 cent beer. Beer was rationed at the time so sometimes they couldn’t get but three cases a week. There wasn’t much profit in food or beer. They made their money off the slot machine. It grossed a hundred dollars a week and they got to keep fifty. They also did well on "Jack Pot Charlie," a punch card game much like the lottery.
After a few months, they got word the grand jury was going to shut down the slot machine, so Pete sold his interest in the cafe to Lester Birkelbach, a friend of Lancelot’s.
Not long after, Lancelot exited and Lester kept it open until 1951, when he walked into his brother’s cafe in Warrenton and asked Herman and his wife Lucyel to take over for him.
"My brother more or less begged to buy it and I bought it from him."
Herman and Lucyel were married on the Fourth of July. The next time it rolls around they will have been married 53 years. They live in Brenham now but still attend the Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Round Top and visit often.
What do you remember about those first days?
The wife and I started it by ourselves and then her mother helped us for about 75 cents to a $1 a day.” Herman allows that those early years were difficult...business was not all that good. Inflation forced the price of a hamburger up to a whopping 25 cents but they were able to hold beer prices down to a dime...at least for a while.
As they progressed, they were able to hire a legendary cook. Her name was Clara Darden. “We paid her a $1 a day. She stayed with us until we got out of it. She was a hard worker. The tougher it got in the kitchen, the better she got. I still admire her today.
...but you did a lot of the cooking yourselves too...
Yes...she did. (Lucyel) The building was originally made out of tile brick with the holes in it... and I had a stack of them that was left over...and I told her one day ‘I’m gonna build me a barbecue pit out of that...her daddy helped me...he was a blacksmith...and if you’re going to build a barbecue I believe I can give you some good advice. In later years, we’d get busy and leave some meat on too long...you’d run a fork in it and you couldn’t pick it up it had gotten so soft. I think that was the secret of my barbecue...those thick walls.
We specialized in that barbecue...during that time when they went to the moon. You remember those Burma shave signs they had in those days? I had signs that said "The best - Hamburger - this sideof the moon! - Where? - 1 mile - Round Top"
It wasn’t only barbecue. We had good chicken fried steak. Our friends used to say that they still can’t find a hamburger like we used to make.
Tell me about scat.
There was a time when you could get a scat game at 8 o’clock in the morning. You could get a scat game any time of the day. That part’s all gone. That has completely changed.
I heard there was music around there.
You remember those old Wurlitzers...German music...a good waltz...a good polka, that’s still my ticket.
In the beginning was it just town people or did you always have a lot of people traveling through? In the beginning, it was mostly town people. I don’t really know the year it began, when the influx of Houston started coming...when it got real hot lookin’ for land...must have been in the late sixties and seventies.
There was a time when my place was the first place they’d stop. ‘Where can I find Annie Schatte?’ (legendary local realtor) and we gave those directions as much as six times in a day. The business started pickin’ up...and I knew where my bread and butter was comin’ from so I started caterin’ to those people. Would you believe people in the country resented that?
Their life has not always been easy. They had to work hard for everything they accomplished.
"When I got to be 70 years old I had to stop and pinch myself to believe it was really me...the hard times we had on the farm...eleven children Momma had. I worked in the grocery nine years before I went to the cafe."
Herman worked in a general store that is where the offices of Round Top Real Estate are now. It was a two story building with hexagon posts in front. It was owned by various people at different times including the Von Rosenbergs, Henry Dipple, and the man Herman worked for, R. A. Richter. Some days he walked four miles from home to make a dollar a day. In later years, the Birkelbach home was between the old general store and the cafe...where Porch Office Antiques stands now.
Lucyel is a Sachs (now Americanized to Sacks). Her mother was a moving force behind the formation of Round Top’s womens’ civic club, the "Do Your Duty Club." Her father was Willie Sachs, the town blacksmith.
"I did all my washin’ and ironin’ at the cafe...and raised two kids."
In the last few years they owned the cafe, "Birkelbachs" began to get some recognition. People say Ima Hogg bought a house two blocks away just so she could be close to the cafe. It became an "In" stop for Houston people who were traveling through the area.
Some pretty high profile people remember Birkelbachs as a special place. Just two weeks before I started this story, I got an e-mail from a reporter who was writing a story on cellist Yo-Yo Ma. He said the world-famous artist kept talking about some place in Round Top he had visited and loved many years ago...a place called Birkelbachs...did such a place exist?
The Birkelbach family has a long standing relationship with the Festival-Institute at Round Top.
"It so happened that the guy who was in charge of the construction at Festival Hill came in and got him a Dr. Pepper one afternoon. We were sittin’ there and Larry (Herman and Lucyel’s son) was workin’ on a screen door. He looked the boy over and said ‘You wanna go to work? If you wanna go to work pick up your daddy’s tools and come on to work." Larry Birkelbach is now the Head of Construction at the Festival-Institute. He leads the band of craftsmen that produce the architectural wonders that awe visitors who tour the campus.
Herman picked up some good press too. He got a mention in the Wall Street Journal and quite a few from another Round Top regular. "I don’t know how many plugs he give me...Leon Hale." Herman used to grow tomatoes behind the cafe and he says the Houston columnist always knew when it was time for them to ripen. "I was raisin’ bulls at the time and he came up to me and said ‘Herman, how do you grow such fine tomatoes?’ and I told him...’Bull****."
Finally, after 31 years, the Birkelbachs were tired. "When we got out of it, it was beginning to make
money but we were so bushed it seemed like that’s what we needed."
Dick is a pilot and Sherry is an artist. Her "GreenPeck" inspirational designs grace the entire back wall of her Porch Office Antiques shop next to the cafe. Dick rebuilds classic cars. They are warm and talented people.
"I remember when Dick and I first came here in ‘73. We used to eat there a lot. We would work on the farm and we would go in and order and Mr. Birkel B would be in there with his old buddies playin’ scat. He’d get up and take the order, then he’d go back and make another play...it was so low key and wonderful. He had a sign up there on the wall that said ‘No out of town Czechs!’... There was an old-timey cash register that just opened. It didn’t register anything.
We used to love to come there and get hamburgers. They were the greatest hamburgers...they still are. I’ve never had a hamburger that good since.
When the airline that Dick worked for started having trouble, they began looking for something they could do to create a backup livelihood.
The cafe came up for sale and we talked to Mr. Birkelbach.
His books consisted of a spiralbound notebook with pencil entries. It looked good but I told Dick I wasn’t a restaurant person...I told Mr. Birkelbach the only way I would do it was if Clara (Darden-Ray) stayed.
It was a real learning experience. It was the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life but I wouldn’t trade it because it got me to where I am now as a person. It taught our kids how to work.
Round Top’s such a unique place. We were lookin’ out there one time and there was a billionaire and a couple of millionaires just sittin’ there havin’ lunch. When Michener wrote the book Texas , he came by a couple of times. Nolan Ryan used to come by with his little boy on the way to his beefmaster ranch.
Probably the most interesting time...was when the oil well blew out down there (inside the city limits) and ‘Red’ Adair used the cafe as his headquarters. They had to stay up all night and be on the telephone...they needed coffee so she just told them ‘there’s the telephone, there’s the refrigerator. Just write down what you take’...they were totally honest.
All the women in town made cookies and snacks..."
At one point Dick commutted to New York. There was a house where seventeen pilots lived when they weren’t flying home. They had heard about the chicken-fried steaks.
"I took twenty frozen ones up to New York and I had Clara on the phone for about a hour while we cooked that meal in New York...and they all loved it...from the Round Top Cafe!"
One thing I learned from Mae Dell (her manager), which is probably how I got my figure... it’s called a crumb sandwich. She would fry that fabulous chicken that was soaked in buttermilk...we would serve it every Friday with homemade bread...I walked in the kitchen one time and I asked Mae Dell ‘What are you eating?’ and she said ‘Don’t tell anybody’ but I asked her ‘...what is it.’ so she said ‘You take that homemade bread and you put real butter on it then you put in the crumbs from the fried chicken...all it is, is grease but it is soooo good and we just had to fight ourselves not to eat it."
What do you remember about the Birkelbachs?
"He would always take my Dad back to the back and serve him a little nip. He always had specialties in the back for his buddies.
When we got the cafe, they got real worried because they wouldn’t have any place to play scat...so we cleaned up the back room and they would play cards back there. They’d leave Clara a tip ‘cause she cleaned it up. All the girls in town had a crush on Larry.
Sherry’s brother-in-law restored an old player piano and they put it in the cafe. "They used to dance in there...on that old floor and we were worried. It had Buffalo Girl Won’t You Come Out Tonight and on the Fourth of July we had all the patriotic music, Sousa marches and all.
"At Festival Hill, they had some foreign students in and there had a Chinese gal who was a beautiful soprano opera singer. She was discovered by Beverly Sills in China. This was when China was a pretty well closed country and she was going from here to live with the conductor of the Metropolitan in New York to continue her education. They called us and said she needed a job. She worked here and everybody came to like her.
Before she left, she put on a concert and James Dick played that player piano and she sang a lot of ballads from Chinese Opera. We knew her as this little chubby Chinese gal but when she sang...she was world class. We used to get letters from her.
We didn’t really do anything except carry on what Mr. Birkelbach had done. We weren’t very creative...whereas Bud made a statement."
After several years, the Pecks bought the old post office in Industry and moved it next door to the cafe and Sherry opened Porch Office Antiques. She was exhausted and ready to give up the Cafe. They put it up for sale. That’s when they met the Bud and Karen Royer out at the Round Top Retreat. Sherry asked Karen to come to her shop during the Antique Fair and sell the craft items she made.
"One of my first memories of Bud was that he would be standing over at the cafe and he’d have his hands in his pocket and he’d just be itchin’...you could see his eyes darting here and there and I told Dick, ‘Look at him, he is just dying to do something.’ and we were just dying for somebody to do something. Our biggest prayer...was for somebody to come buy the cafe.
We thought and thought about Bud and Karen and so we said ‘Let’s call and make them an offer they can’t refuse.’ and so we said ‘...if you’ll try it for six months without putting anything into it or paying...just try it.’ and they did.
It was hard to give up. We didn’t think it would be but it was a little bit hard to let go."
What year did you take over the Cafe?
May 16, 1987. We met the Pecks in 1986. They knew my background in the restaurant business and asked us in May of ‘87 if we’d take it over. I laughed and said we didn’t have any money, but they made it possible for us...put a couple of hundred dollars in the till and made the bank payment and it was off and runnin.’ It had to make a livin’ from day one.
You had some hard times...
It’s all relative, we still do. (laughter) We had four kids, a house payment in Houston we couldn’t get rid of...and the rent house across the street here. It was not really knowin’ what we were doin’. We served the hamburger and the chicken fried steak ‘cause they were good and then worked off a chalkboard menu for several months before we added the chicken fingers and a few other things. It was a slow start.
I did all the cooking, Karen and I. It was Tara (their daughter) out front and Micah (their oldest son) washing dishes in the kitchen. Mae Dell was still here. She was like a wonderful mother. Mary Lou Goehring went to work with us in July so she’s been with us for nine years.
We had no earthly idea what we were doing. We knew where we wanted to go but we didn’t know how to get there. Then in March of 1988, we were voted the Best Country Cafe In Texas by a reader’s poll in the Houston Chronicle, which overexaggerated things but it was great.
I remember Francis Harris calling Karen up that Sunday morning at 7:30 in the morning and waking her up yelling ‘You won! You won! You won!’ Karen called me at the cafe and we just cried.
The bad thing about that was that we had no warning, no idea that was coming. We sold out of food immediately. So about 2:30, Karen and I bagged up all the rolls we had and pieces of pie and sat out on the porch, thankin’ people for drivin’ up, inviting them back, gave ‘em rolls and butter and pies and sent ‘em elsewhere to eat.
It was later that year that we realized the importance of the Houston market, the weekenders and their appreciation of quality food and their expectation of that ...and it was at that understanding, that we got a better focus on where we were gonna go.
What was your menu like in the beginning?
It was the chicken fingers. We used fresh chicken breast, breaded them ourselves, made the honey mustard. We did a ham and swiss sandwich and a chicken salad sandwich and our cheese soup. We did a chicken-fried steak, a grilled chicken breast and a cheeseburger and that basically was it. Then I saw a picture in a cookbook of a trout and I said ‘Omigosh, that’s pretty!’ Then I had to go find it and find out how to do it. That’s how the trout came about. We were still trying to find out who we were, what we were trying to say. It was that summer of ‘88 that we came to realize we needed to step into who we were. We added that first pasta dish that we still have on the menu. We added a fresh grilled tuna steak.
Your cafe is not just a place to eat...it’s a culture. How did all the "Budisms" and other aspects of the Round Top Cafe’s unique charm evolve?
The word integrity is very important to us. My number ten ‘Budism' out there is ‘A lot of people can tell you what they do but very few can tell you why they do what they do.’ That sums up the...premise of what we do...that we need to figure out who we are and make sure that when we make a statement about what we are about, whether its how the plate is presented or how the table is set or how we paint the wall...or whatever it may be...that it’s a reflection of who we are.
I don’t pull any punches. I know good and well there’s some times when I need to pull punches. There’s no pretense here. There’s no Bull**** here. Well, I call it believable BS. There’s a lot of BS but it’s believable. So when you stand out there and wait, there’s a reason why... but once you’re in the dining room, it’s your table. I’m not going to rush you.
When I walk in the dining room, I look from the plate to the face. That can tell you what’s going on.
Tell me more about your philosophy.
When we talk about the restaurant...what we want people walking out of the restaurant understanding...is the premise of the cookbook, which is not a cookbook. It’s a journal. The premise is that the food is not the issue. It is the relationships that are important. The food gives us the opportunity to nurture those relationships. It’s the importance of... the relationships in our family, and then we look at the customers and the employees and the vendors as a greater family. That’s so important to us. That’s what gives it worth...gives it meaning.
It’s not just making money...You know, with 38 seats, 65 percent of your business on Saturday and four hours on Sunday...then you get a bad weekend weather wise. You know the reality is...it’s not the money that keeps you going...just to have an impact on other people’s lives.
The children of the owners of this cafe have always been involved in the Cafe. I know family is very important to you. Tell me about that.
These are not simple questions. I always get asked ‘How do we get our kids motivated to work?’ It wasn’t a matter of motivating them to work...from the get-go and to a certain degree, it is now, it was ‘You gotta do it. Somebody's gotta be here.’ At the beginning we didn’t have any choices. Particularly with Micah and Tara...they can remember what is was like before the Cafe...when we were barely eking out anything in Houston. So they can really appreciate what they have...they can see the contrast. We needed them there too.
They are very much a part of this and I know they are going to change and move on so it will be interesting to see how the complexion of this will change.
Our family dinners are real important times. We cry and laugh and laugh hard and sit at the table for an hour. Those are great memories. We enjoy traveling together. Karen is really the glue. She is the one that holds it together.
The Cafe is a lot of work. Is it worth it?
Are the relationships and the opportunities worth it? Yeah...we might hesitate but ultimately we would all come down and say it was worth it. It’s hard but I’m a firm believer that anything you do well is going to be hard. We’re as good as the last meal served and that’s the essence of this business.
...and you keep doing it so you must like it.
We’re always ready to make dreams come true. We’ve got our price. You want it...we’ll make dreams come true. Everybody wants to move to the country and everybody wants to own a restaurant.
Tell me some of the honors you have won and news coverage you’ve had.
Why?
...because it’s part of what I’m writing about in this article. Hey, I’m asking the questions here.
We’ve been very fortunate. If you give me a stump, it’s very hard to knock me off it. We never went out and asked for them...
Give me names Bud.
The Dallas Morning News did about three different things about us, one was a major two page spread. The travel section of the Houston Chronicle did a nice section on us in conjunction with the cookbook. Southern Living is going to be here in two weeks to do a photo shoot on us. Country Decorating just did a photo shoot the other day on the house. Like everybody in town we had Country Living, Country Home and Veranda just skipping over each other’s photo shoots...Southwest Airlines in their inflight magazine. You know Karen frames these and puts them up on the wall at the house. I’ve just never been one to put them on the walls here. Let the meal in front of you stand for what it is. Plus I want the wall space to sell something.
The list is much longer than that. The Austin American Statesman, Austin Chronicle, San Antonio Light
and Cosmopolitan magazine just to name a few. He even got a mention in Tom Peter’s newsletter. The
man who wrote The Search for Excellence used the Cafe as an example. Bud attracts publicity like his
tollhouse pies attract gluttons.
Now for the last question and as is traditional, the most important of the interview...If I write nice
things about you in this article...can I get in without having to wait on Saturday night?
Of course you can get in and I get to edit the article and if you would like I’ll even write the article.
You’ve got to remember the sign on the front door. There are three ways to get your name on the top of the
list.
Number 1: Just slip me a hundred dollar bill. That always works.
2: You spend a thousand dollars next
door at Zoë and Sam and I had somebody do that last Saturday night.
3. Buy twenty-four cookbooks at
retail...The choice is yours."
Running a small business is a hard row to hoe. It takes guts and hard work. When times are tough, it’s easy to blame others for your troubles. In Round Top, just like in the big city, businesses compete and sometimes bad feelings result. Sherry Peck has a few words of wisdom to share about that.
"In this small a town, if you really have the attitude of helping each other...you just can’t be threatened.
It just does not make business work... because people read you, they know you’re threatened and that competition hurts.
I believe the man upstairs is always in control so if your heart and your attitude are right...then it’s going to work out better in spite of your different personalities.
Good advice Sherry. Sounds like something for all businesspeople to think about...in a small town...and maybe, in towns like Houston and New York that are not so small.
