The sign outside Schaefer’s had only been up for three days when I visited last week. The former Hatchet space had been empty for more than a year, but Richmond residents quickly caught on to the new restaurant at 30 Bridge Street, which John and Courtney Roettinger opened on June 1. Locals ha ve been asking for paper menus to take home and show to friends, John said. Some stopped in when the couple were still working on their DIY renovation. Since then, customers have gotten takeout, filled the 20-seat communal table and absolutely packed the place for Father’s Day brunch. It’s the first time John, 34, has worked in a small town. He grew up in New Jersey and Connecticut, then lived in Boston and Burlington. “It’s like the ’90s out here,” Roettinger said. “There’s not a lot to worry about.” It’s kinda like the ’90s inside Schaefer’s, too. The restaurant buzzes from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. five days a week, serving breakfast, lunch and dinner. Its menu is simple and classic: Think corned-beef hash, maple-glazed doughnuts and a humongous hotcake for breakfast; smash burgers, BLTs and loaded baked potatoes for lunch; and a few dinner entrées after 4 p.m., if you’re getting fancy. The 80-seat spot is set up for kids to feel at home while their grown-ups sip Tom Cat Negronis or zero-proof spritzes. The interior got a light makeover from its Hatchet days, forgoing full-on rustic for homelike, with a couple of armchairs and a shelf of Nordic cookbooks. Between its schedule — closed Wednesday and Thursday but open on Monday, when other eateries are closed — and the Roettingers’ family-friendly, all-day offerings, Schaefer’s is exactly what Richmond was missing. Schaefer’s is set up for kids to feel at home while their grown-ups sip Tom Cat Negronis or zero-proof spritzes. It’s also what John was missing. The longtime area chef had “lost my passion for cooking for a couple of years,” he said. He spent the past five as executive chef and then director of operations for Burlington Beer’s massive South End restaurant, beer hall and event space. There, he managed a staff of 85 and ran one of the highest-volume businesses in town, sometimes serving more than a thousand people in a single night. For the first restaurant of his own, he wanted a slower pace. John and Courtney have an almost-4-year-old daughter, Remi. They moved from Burlington to “the middle of the woods” in Starksboro in 2024. John is three years sober. John and Courtney Roettinger Credit: Daria Bishop “I just wanted to cook breakfast,” he said. “I thought I’d open a small place with my wife and my dad, do counter service, and just survive.” Two months after John left Burlington Beer, the chef started getting messages from his former staff: Might there be room for them at Schaefer’s? He heard from so many — including chef Jerry Wallman, baker-kitchen manager Josh Lemieux, bar manager Caroline Kelly, front-of-house manager Jenny Iannazzi and events specialist Lindsey Lowell, plus a handful of other cooks, bartenders and servers — that he changed his plans. He hired them all, plus several part-time local kids. Schaefer’s opened with a staff of 30, three meals a day and full table service. John cooks breakfast solo most of the time, and the rest of the team handles dinner while he’s out front. The talented, tight-knit staff gives John more time to be the kind of owner-operator customers remember from the Bridge Street Café, which Marvin Carpenter ran in the space for 14 years before closing in 2014. While Hatchet followed with an almost 10-year run that was more gastropub than family restaurant, Schaefer’s is a throwback to the business that came before. Already, Richmond regulars like to stop in and talk with him, just as they did with Carpenter. Some have asked him to open earlier, at 7 a.m., so they can chat over breakfast sandwiches and drip coffee before they hit the road or local trails. Schaefer’s 8-to-8 hours are limited, at least compared to the restaurant it’s named for. John’s great-grandmother, Lydia Schaefer, owned the original Schaefer’s Restaurant across the street from the train station in Hoboken, N.J., from the 1940s until the 1980s. Her diner was open 24 hours, and she sold cocktails around the clock to New Yorkers who would take the train over for a drink when bars on their side of the river closed. Lydia’s no-nonsense approach is the inspiration for the Vermont Schaefer’s motto of “simple food done right,” John said. It’s a phrase she often repeated. Many of the behind-the-scenes details come from John’s dad, Harvey Roettinger. He was an area director for Bertucci’s, managing more than 15 of the Italian chain’s restaurants across Connecticut and Massachusetts. Now he lives with John and Courtney and helps with the books at Schaefer’s when he’s not watching Remi. Courtney, 37, manages the front of house three evenings a week and fills in elsewhere as needed, including a shift waiting tables on that extra-busy Father’s Day. The Essex Junction native and her future husband almost met in Boston: While she was in college, Courtney worked at Bertucci’s, in the same location Harvey tried to get his son to work. But John went to visit a friend at Saint Michael’s College and never left Vermont. He got a job working nights at Klinger’s Bread, then hopped around before landing at L’Amante in Burlington, his first fine-dining gig. Courtney made her way to Burlington after graduation and to the Scuffer Tap Table on Church Street, where she and John finally did meet. “That was my first chef job, and it was her first GM job,” John recalled. “We’d scream at each other during service. Somehow, some way, we went on a date. Now we’re married with a kid.” Courtney went on to become a front-of-house manager at Waterworks Food + Drink in Winooski before taking a breather from the restaurant world when Remi was born in 2022. Remi Roettinger with a hotcake Credit: Daria Bishop Remi is getting an even earlier start in the industry than her parents did. When she’s at Schaefer’s, she helps out by cleaning one little table by the door “over and over again,” John said. “She also takes orders from people who already have their food,” Courtney said, chuckling. Remi’s influence on the space is clear: The former creemee window — which started with Bridge Street Café and continued to Hatchet — is now a kids’ corner. Tucked out of the way, the nook is stocked with books and toys, from alphabet blocks to Matchbox cars. “We wanted to make it very clear that kids are people, too, and they’re absolutely welcome to play and be silly in our space,” Courtney said. That kid- and parent-friendly thoughtfulness extends to fun straw cups and a special “little ones” section of the menu that will continue growing, John said. Oh, and warm chocolate chip cookies ($4 for two) for dessert, with an optional glass of milk. I went to Schaefer’s for Monday lunch without my 3-year-old son. But he would have been very happy in a spacious booth or on the long bench seat along the far wall — if he ever left the kids’ corner. Instead, I met Vermont Brewers Association executive director Emma Arian, whose office is nearby. She’d been to Schaefer’s before and knew John from his days at Burlington Beer. Arian immediately pointed out the draft list, which feels like a nod to Hatchet in its breadth: 16 options on tap, from Foam Brewers’ Blushing fruited sour ($9) to Queen City Brewery’s Yorkshire Porter ($9) to Good Measure Brewing’s Riser cream ale ($5). Ultimately, the menu’s zero-proof section won out. I ordered a Poolside Spritzer ($8) — a savory-sweet watermelon and tomato vinegar shrub with lime and sparkling water. It’s the best mocktail I’ve had all year. Arian had similar praise for the Sunday Sipper ($7), an orange juice-grenadine concoction that John later said reminds him of Push-Up popsicles, a very nostalgic treat. Winston and Tammy Rost dining at Schaefer’s Credit: Daria Bishop Everything is made from scratch, from sourdough English muffins to burger buns, with the exception of the spinach tortilla used for the vegetarian Garden Wrap. We didn’t wait long for our starters: a chopped wedge salad ($16) and crispy cauliflower ($9). The salad was all the things I love about a wedge but portioned into easier-to-eat pieces. It was loaded with thick-cut bacon and Jasper Hill Farm’s Bayley Hazen Blue cheese crumbles. Those crumbles were also sprinkled throughout the cauliflower dish, a vegetarian ode to Buffalo wings. As I ate it, the light, crispy texture and slight heat of the tiny florets almost tricked me into thinking it was Gobi Manchurian, my favorite Indian-Chinese cauliflower dish. We devoured it. I hadn’t gotten my bacon fill with the wedge salad and so opted for a BLT ($15). The summery sandwich’s proportions were spot-on, with toasted yet pillowy housemade brioche holding it all together. The only thing that would make it better is if it came cut in half. (Maybe my toddler’s sandwich-shape specifications are rubbing off on me.) Fans of Burlington Beer’s fries — which Seven Days called “superlative” in a 2021 story, though they’ve since changed — will be thrilled. All the sandwiches at Schaefer’s come with a pickle spear and slender, hand-cut fries that follow that original McDonald’s-inspired recipe, and they might be even better. There was such a pile on the plate that I brought some — and half of the big BLT — back to the office to share. John won’t have a fryer down at Volunteers Green for Richmond’s Fourth of July festivities, but he’ll serve burgers, hot dogs, grilled cheese and maybe some Schaefer’s Fancy Wings, along with Sunday Sippers and basil lemonade. The restaurant will be closed that day to give staff a chance to enjoy and meet people in town — the few who haven’t already made their way in for a bite to eat. I haven’t made plans for the Fourth yet, but it might be fun to pretend Richmond is my small town, too. The celebration, like Schaefer’s, is the kind of throwback we all need. ➆ Schaefer’s, 30 Bridge St., Richmond, 802-434-7331. The original print version of this article was headlined “All in the Family | Schaefer’s in Richmond is an all-day, old-school throwback” The post First Bite: Schaefer’s in Richmond Is a Family-Friendly Throwback appeared first on Seven Days. ...read more read less