Man Vs Food Effect on Local Restaurant

[Mojo88]

I used to live in the Columbus,Ohio area and was visiting over the weekend. We decided to go to German Village the home of several family owned restaurants and have lunch. The decision was between the Thurman Cafe or Schmidt's Sausage Haus. We chose Schmidts because we were never disappointed when we lived there and they have a buffet with all the favourites. As we arrived at 11:45 we noticed the parking lot was quite full for that time of day, Schmidts was more of an evening type of stop. It didn't take long and we were seated, but it was packed. As we ate the lines grew and after 10 minutes the place was completely full ,not one space was empty. I asked the waitress if something was going on at OSU and she said it had nothing to do with that. The reason was Man Vs Food. Last year the show was in Columbus and did a spot on them. Since then they are busy at all hours. I was wondering if anyone had seen something like this happen when a program does a spot on a local business. By the way if you go to Schmidts treat yourself to a Bahama Mama Sausage and a cream puff

 

[Isaac]

Ill tell you what. I saw that MVF episode and thought the cream puff looked divine. I dont blame people for flocking to his on site locations. He makes everything look so darn good.

 

[Gruder]

+1 on Schmidt's Cream Puffs. Amazing!

 

[stobes21]

Man vs. Food featured Pappy's Barbecue here in town and since then the crowds have definitely picked up. But the place had only opened a year or so before then and the show was one of numerous accolades it collected in a pretty short time. So I'm not sure how much you can credit to the show and how much belongs to the recognition it received in local media and then just general word of mouth.

I went today for lunch and the line was about 45 minutes long. It was definitely worth it though. Spectacular 'cue.

The same episode of man vs. food also featured a local favorite called Crown Candy. That place has been around forever and the lunch crowd is always out the door. I don't go often enough to say whether it really has picked up more than before or at other times though.

 

[FreezerBurns]

Interesting to see that all you need is a little TV exposure to make your business explode.

 

[_JP_]

Columbus has always been a foodie sort of town where people flock to whatever restaurant is trendy. We had that happen when I helped open a local eatery years ago. People were lined up outside for two hours to get in during winter, while snow was coming down.

Schmidts has always been a great place to go, but their exposure has been low for a long time now until that TV episode. Man, right now I want a Bahama Mama!

 

[mantic]

If there were only more "bricks & mortar" shaving stores, I could do a "Man Vs. Shave!"

--Mark

 

[thebikingengineer]

I've never had a problem with the wait there. It's more busy at dinner-rush times, thoroughly packed most times, but I don't think there's ever been more than an hour wait when I've been there. +1 on Cream puffs and Bahama Mamas though, I kinda want to swing by sometime this week and have a run at the buffet.

 

[Go West Young Man]

Interesting to see that all you need is to pay for a little TV exposure to make your business explode.

Fixed for you.

 

[Thebigspendur]

Yes free publicity is worth it's weight in gold for most businesses.

45 minute wait or 1 hour wait or more? There ain't no restaurant in the world that's so great that would have me waiting that much time to get into. If I can't get in within 30 minutes or less I'm gone.

 

[jacketsfanatic]

As a life long Central Ohio resident I can vouch for Schmidts excellent buffet and cream puffs. My wife spent a couple of weeks one summer making nothing but cream puffs for the Schmidts booth at the state fair.


She's the only person I know that can't stand them...

 

[pcdad]

MvF is a GREAT show!!..along with a few others

 

[Randy Watson]

A co-worker of mine drove up to Columbus after seeing the MVF episode to try the "Thurminator" at Thurman's, he said it was huge but delicious.

 

[thebikingengineer]

Yes free publicity is worth it's weight in gold for most businesses.

45 minute wait or 1 hour wait or more? There ain't no restaurant in the world that's so great that would have me waiting that much time to get into. If I can't get in within 30 minutes or less I'm gone.

Well, if the wait is that long I'll walk around and chack out German Village. There's lots of shops and places to browse in a close distance so I keep busy. If I've still got some time after browsing I'll head to the bar in the restaurant, it's a brewery too so they've got some tasty beer. I've never had a wait at the bar.

 

[Austin]

I don't like this program. I don't see anything interesting in gluttony. This show was in Austin last summer and visited 2 restaurants.

 

[airplanedoc]

They filmed part of "the informant" in town. everyplace the cast ate was hugely popular for several weeks, cause Matt Damon "might" have ate something from there