Seattle Sun Newspaper - Vol. 7, Issue 2, February 2003

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Ave eatery celebrates 'world's oldest' foods: sausage, beer

By MATTHEW PREUSCH

At Shultzy's Sausage on the south end of the Ave, you will not find too-loud music, designer drinks or weekly promotions featuring all you can eat chicken wings, though those are all available nearby. At Shultzy's, what you will find is a number of fine beers, comfortable tables and handmade sausage, lovingly cranked out every day by Shultzy's staff.

Don Schulze, the owner, is still behind the counter seven days a week at Shultz's, now in its 13th year on University Way, the fourth at its current location (4114 University Way NE).

Now 49, with a small family, he still dons tennis shoes and an apron with his undergraduate employees. Shultzy's is Schulze's labor of love.

"There's really no secret," he said, leading a visitor past piles of grilling onions and into his mini-sausage factory. "It's the world's oldest food sausage and beer."

Schulze does have a formula for his sausage, though, and it's one that has won him a small army of loyalists; the walls at Shultzy's are covered with pictures of the faithful, donning Shultzy's shirts and posing before the world's monuments.

To keep customers coming back, Schulze says he uses fresh, natural ingredients in his kitchen. That means ordering spices regularly, so they keep their flavor, and seeking out the finest cuts of "pork butt," the base meat for his sausage.

"It's a pretty expensive cut of meat," he said, "We take it, we open it up and we see if there's any imperfections and take them out."

Schultzy's makes seven varieties of sausage, with a number of variations. The most popular are the Andouille (a mild, smoky link) and the Ragin' Cajun (a spicier option.) They also make burgers, chili, gumbo and number of sides, all from scratch. For the healthy-minded, there are chicken sandwiches and, yes, even a veggie burger. Meals range from $5 to $7.

During lunch, the counter and tables fill up with grad students and professors; during Husky football games, the 75-occupancy room packs in closer to 125. In the back of the wood-paneled space, there is a bar with several stools where smoking is allowed. There are a rotating menu of nine beers starting at $3.50 a pint and a small list of wines by the glass.

Schulze (he spelled the restaurant's name phonetically to help tongue-tied clientele) was born in Portland, Ore., and raised in Eugene, where he attended the University of Oregon. After graduation, he shipped north to Alaska to work in a friend's relative's mining operation, making big money for a first job. Later he moved to Seattle, and in the 1980s traveled the country as a manager for an upscale clothing company.

Then, in 1988, his life changed in a number of ways. In a little over a year, he quit his job, got married, had a son and opened the first Shultzy's a few doors north of its current location. While not many people would choose to make all those steps at once, Schulze was having the time of his life.

"I'd been practicing making sausage during my previous job with the idea that I would start this business," he said. Originally, he intended to open a chain of small sausage shops, but soon found the logistics of leasing several small spaces was too daunting.

"It didn't work at all because it took forever to find one hole in the wall," let alone five or six, he said.

Schulze later opened an Eastside location, which he eventually closed in 1999. But not before getting Microsoft to design Shultzy's current logo for free, after using Schulze in one of the Redmond-based software giant's ad campaigns.

While conditions along the Ave have been less than ideal for business as of late, due in part to the ongoing road construction and the strip's chronic problems with panhandlers and crime, Schulze says he likes his restaurant's location because of its proximity to the University of Washington.

He particularly enjoys the conversations he can have with students or professors, and says the well-educated customer base appreciates the care taken in selecting beers or pork butt.

"The clientele is very accepting of new things. They are very innovative in the fact that they will try anything," he said.

An adventurous palette may be what's needed to appreciate spicy kielbasa in Seattle, a city closer to Tokyo than Chicago in its culinary leanings.