NEW BRAUNFELS — Ron Snider, the businessman who brought Krause’s Café back to life, knew he had a terminal case of pulmonary fibrosis about five years before he died in April, said his son Chris Snider, who now operates the restaurant.
For most of that time, though, he shared his diagnosis only with family and close friends while defying his doctor by keeping a busy schedule overseeing construction of Krause’s biergarten and pavilion.
“He was definitely a proud person, and he didn’t want sympathy. But it gave us a time to connect,” Chris said. “I got the opportunity to work with him, to understand his vision and get my hands around what it takes to operate what we affectionately refer to as a three-ring circus.”
Founded in 1938, Krause’s closed its doors in 1985. It reopened in 2017 with 70 beers on tap and a menu full of German staples (schweinshaxe, or roasted pork shank, and potato pancakes) as well as Texas ones (fried chicken, pig burgers). That year, it got a rave review from Express-News food critic Mike Sutter — “A beerhall that could be airlifted, survive and thrive in any city hungry for the convergence of Old World archetypes with New World style,” he wrote.
Today, Snider co-owns the café with his mother, Carol, and his sister, Megan Lowe.
Ron Snider had a passion for starting businesses, his son said. When he and Carol moved to New Braunfels in the ’80s, they operated a company making playground equipment. They later sold it and started a company making barbecue pits. Selling that company, they invested in real estate in downtown New Braunfels. Along with Krause’s, they opened the Italian restaurant 188 South.
“At the time, downtown New Braunfels was largely vacant,” the younger Snider said. “I think he just saw the opportunity. He definitely fell in love with the process of redeveloping old buildings and finding good tenants for them, and helping those tenants be successful.”
Snider, who also operates the Texas Tito’s pepper and pickle company, recently sat for an interview in Krause’s pavilion to discuss his father’s legacy, difficulties finding staff and the rapid growth of New Braunfels. The following has been edited for brevity and clarity.
Snider, who also operates the Texas Tito’s pepper and pickle company, recently sat for an interview in Krause’s pavilion to discuss his father’s legacy, difficulties finding staff and the rapid growth of New Braunfels. The following has been edited for brevity and clarity.
Q: I’m surprised by how active your downtown is, how many small businesses there are.
A: It looks a lot different than it did 20 years ago. It’s very vibrant now and occupancy is about 100 percent. There’s almost no vacant buildings down here anymore.
Q: Was there ever a question in your mind whether you would follow him in taking control of Krause’s?
A: I had my doubts sometimes. He and I, we worked well together sometimes and other times it was a big challenge. You know, the restaurant business is a big business. It consumes a lot and we’re open a lot. We run seven days a week, we run long hours. I have a 3-year-old and a 7-year-old. I don’t know that it would necessarily be a choice that I would make for my family and me, but it’s definitely something that we enjoy. My kids were raised here, they grew up here, they run around like they own the place.
Q: From what I’ve read about your father, it sounds like he was a very energetic businessman. Is it difficult to carry that on?
A: It is. I didn’t realize how many things he actually did and how much energy he actually had, especially at his age and with his diagnosis. It’s amazing. But he taught me how to work with people and not trying to do everything myself. And trust people. You know, things weren’t ever going to go perfectly, but make prompt decisions and just keep moving.
Q: Do you do things differently from him?
A: He taught me most of what I know, but he and I definitely had a slightly different approach. One thing, he loved starting companies, but he didn’t necessarily like operating companies. He got bored with operating companies and I like operating companies. I like processes and procedures, I like putting things and systems in place. It’s got daily challenges, mostly personnel-related, especially in this business. I mean, it’s all about people, right? It’s the customers, it’s the employees. It’s such a people business. I like the challenges of operating day in and day out. That may be one of the only things I’m better at than he was!
Q: There’s a lot of tradition at this business. How do you respect that tradition while staying up to date with modern tastes?
A: We try to be respectful of the typical German beer hall, respectful of the café, and then bring some more modern elements, especially outdoors here. For example, we’re installing TVs out here right now, but we kind of have a no-TV mandate in the beer hall and the café.
We keep the traditional dishes on. Obviously, those have to evolve as well, though. We tried a lot of the original recipes from 1938, what was popular at Krause’s, and it was amazing how much criticism we got with those recipes, a lot of it from the people that remember them back then, that were like, “This is not how it used to be!”
You know, tastes evolve, but so do towns. We kind of look at this as, you know, New Braunfels is a very traditional town, but, boy, has it evolved. The population has grown. The roads have grown, the traffic’s increased. We look at Krause’s as a microcosm of that. We try to grow Krause’s and keep up with demand, keep up with modern times, but also honor the traditions. Put the German beers on tap, put the Texas beers on tap. There’s not a microwave in the kitchen. Cook everything, as much as we can, from scratch.
Q: What do you do to ensure authenticity from the standpoint of German culture? Do you have employees who are German?
A: We definitely have some German transplants on staff. One of them is a manager. For example, it’s her recipe from Germany that’s our special this week. It’s a very authentic German sauerbraten.
At the same time, we’re a German American restaurant, hands down. I kind of compare that to your Tex-Mex restaurants. I mean, we have a chicken-fried steak on the menu. We have Shiner Bock on tap.
Q: Do you get visitors from Germany?
A: Sure do. We also get members of the military from San Antonio who were stationed in Germany. They like to come here and have the same experience. You know, Germany is big. There’s a lot of regions, and the food varies by region. We find that we get feedback depending on what region of Germany people are familiar with or stationed at. They kind of have praise or criticism of the German elements of our food accordingly.
Q: Have you had difficulty finding staff lately?
A: Yes, we have, but we also have a really, really good staff. I think everybody’s having trouble finding staff, or everybody that I talk to. I keep seeing restaurants posting shortened hours. We try to avoid that as much as possible. We achieve some social distancing by limiting the number of people. We rarely fill all of these tables, and that comes largely from our inability to staff to the levels that we would like to. We had a record year, but we could have done a lot more sales with more staff, I believe.
Q: What are some ways you’ve tried to deal with the lack of staff?
A: One, we’ve worked on retention because it’s easier to keep somebody, typically, than to find somebody. We’ve done that through paid time off, improving some of the policies for the workers, raising compensation, which is also in response to just the general market. Also, improving facilities. We’re working on our kitchen right now to make it a better place to work. We really just try to have a good culture, to have good facilities and treat our staff well.
Q: New Braunfels is one of the fastest-growing towns in the U.S. How do you feel about that?
A: I definitely have mixed feelings. Growing up here, I think there were 20,000 people when we moved here, and it was a very tight community. And now, boy.
One thing I can say for sure is the opportunities have increased, and that’s evidenced in downtown. The fact that there’s zero vacancy, it just speaks to the demand. The fact that Krause’s can exist in this size speaks of the demand. There’s a ton of opportunities. It’s easy to get nostalgic and not want things to change.
I also don’t have to drive to San Antonio and Austin to buy clothes, or go to the mall, or do all the things that I remember doing growing up. You know, you really don’t have to leave town for much anymore.
Q: On your website you refer to New Braunfels as a German town. With so many people moving in, could you still say that?
A: That’s an interesting question. I would say it’s a German town with a lot of other heritage, including the Hispanic community, always growing. There’s a lot of tie-ins to that, too. German and Mexican culture, there’s a lot of crossover, even in the music.
New Braunfels is getting more and more diverse, and I think it’s for the better. It was a German town. It still has some strong German roots.
Q: You feel good about the direction New Braunfels is heading?
A: I do. There’s a lot of citizens here that care a lot about the future of the community. And the problems that we have here are good problems, right? We’re trying to figure out how to — I don’t want to say fight the growth — but how to control the growth. What kind of growth we want to see, what kind of housing we want to see. We’re not worried about the fate of the community like some rural cities are. We have good problems in New Braunfels.
