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| A Soup for the AgesBy Don Polec |
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| People have been coming to
Busch's Seafood Restaurant in Sea Isle City for 125 years for the she-crab soup. And
it's not hard to see why after just one taste.
The secret family recipe has been passed down through the generations and now resides
inside the noggin of Al Schettig, who is only the 3rd person in history to know how it's
made.
He uses a special cooking spoon that's been handed down through the decades
specifically for making the soup and is kept in a safe (no kidding!) for security
purposes.
The soup is only available on Sundays and Tuesdays because it's made only in small
batches, since there's a concern that large "assembly line" cooking would
compromise the taste. Whatever, it's got to be slurped to be believed. |
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At Busch's, it's all about
making memories
by John Dougherty
Correspondent |
| SEA ISLE CITY -
There is a painted, wooden plaque on the reception desk of Busch's Seafood Restaurant in
Sea Isle; "Memories Made Here." |
| Those three simple words encompass
the extraordinary and personal experience that is Busch's. It is not just a
restaurant, not just a place to grab some seafood or a drink (high quality as they may
be.) It is a place with a century-long history, and a warm consciousness of its
heritage. It is a place where employers, staff and customers become family. It
is a place where memories are made, and passed down through the generations. It is,
in a word, unforgettable. |
| Aside from the memories made by its
guests, the restaurant has myriad memories of its own, gathered over its 123-year history.
And for the lengthy span of its history, Busch's has been owned and operated by the
same eponymous family, all direct descendents of the Busch's of Austria. |
| The first generation, George Busch
and his wife Anna Busch came to America and founded the business as Busch's Hotel.
As a historical side note, George's brother Adolphus, joined the Anheuser Brewery,
becoming the "Busch" in Anheuser-Busch. |
| George's son, George Jr.,
established Busch's seafood in 1912. His daughter, Anna, and her husband Phillip
Phillips took over in 1936, and were succeeded by George and Linda Phillips in 1962.
The fifth, and current generation, their daughter, Kim, and her husband Al
Schettig, joined the business in 1998. |
| "It was bascially an offer we
couldn't refuse," Al said, laughing. |
| A sixth generation, Kim and Al's
sons, Logan, 8, and Tyler, 12, wait in the wings. |
| "Tyler washes glasses and
cleans crab shells, and Logan washes dishes and sorts silverware," Al said.
"We let them work when they want to; enough to let them become interested, but not so
they miss their childhood." |
| But the Busch's family isn't
exclusive to the bloodline of George Busch; that family includes everyone who enters the
restaurant, whether they are management, staff or customers. |
| On a superficial level, the
restaurant has the feel of home - the decor is warm, including photos of the Busch family
throughout the generations and the restaurant's history, and other decorations with
special meaning to members of the staff. A large portrait of Anna Busch Phillips is
hung in the Anna Busch Phillips room, above where she used to sit and work. Plates
from the original restaurant adorn the walls. |
| More than that, with the exception
of some extensions in the 50's, the interior of Busch's has not changed much over the
course of the past century. Although the original Busch's Hotel building was
destroyed in the early 1900's, the current building has existed ever since. |
| "It's part of the charm,"
Al said. "We paint and renew, but we keep everything the same, like a time
capsule." |
| But Busch's doesn't just look like
home; Busch's feels like home. As renowned food critic Ed Hitzel said in this summer's
edition of his Restaurant Magazine: "I would live at Busch's." |
| Most of the staff has been working
here for years, becoming familiar faces to return customers, and vice versa. |
| Mike Chambers, one of Busch's
bartenders who, according to Al, "makes one of the best Cosmopolitans on Earth,"
has been working there for six years. |
| "During the first year, they
welcomed me in like family," he said. "You see the same faces, week after
week, and they really talk to you like you're their family. It's a great
atmosphere." |
| The staff agrees that Busch's is a
special place, and are trained to perfection. "Every day we have a meeting with
the wait staff that we call the 'line up,' " Kim said. "We remind them
about the mission and make sure they know the daily specials." |
| The mission is emblazoned across the
top of Busch's menus: "Generous portions of the highest quality food and beverage
combined with courteous service continues to be our commitment and tradition since
1882." |
| Al added, "We have a special
obligation to make sure the food and service complements their memories. I want
people to walk out of here and feel like you do after going to Disney World, that you got
the best for every dollar you spent. I hope that first-time customers will have felt
the magic and will be back." |
| "It's quite a place," said
chef Joe Marszalek, a graduate from the Restaurant School in Philadelphia and former chef
of various casinos. |
| Marszalek knew after his first
weekend working at Busch's 12 years ago that he would be back. He is one of the 14
people working in Busch's kitchen, and he revealed one of the secrets of Busch's success;
letting the freshness of the ingredients speak for themselves. "We don't
over-season our food," he said. "Simplification's the
key." |
| Busch's has been a facet of the Sea
Isle community for a century, but currently there are some fears that the restaurant will
be sold and destroyed. Al laid these fears to rest: "There are no plans, not
even a thought, of making Busch's into condos." |
| After seven years of ownership, Al
and Kim have a bright future to look forward to and quite a few memories of their own. |
| "Running Busch's is like a
dance," Al said. "You don't dance to get to the other side of the floor,
you dance to enjoy every step of the way. No matter where we end up, we'll be having
a great time." |
| Busch's is located at 8700 Anna
Phillips Lane in Sea Isle City. |
|
Kim and Al
Schettig, of Busch's, will make sure your visit to the
123-year-old establishment is one you'll remember. Vacationers
make sure to visit Buschs at least a couple times during their stay.
Many say it wouldn't be vacation without dinner at Busch's. |
| August
2005, The Beachcomber |
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| Buschs...Thoughts on a 123-year-old
restaurant
by Ed Hitzel |
| I would live at Busch's. |
| Which brings me (and you) to
Busch's, a restaurant in Sea Isle City. I think I might like to hang out at Busch's
for the rest of my life. At least for part of the Summer. I just like the
place. First of all, it's an old building, and it reeks history and momentous events
and I love that aura. Like the same feeling I get in Williamsburg, Virginia.
Sure, there are costumes and actors involved, but there's an undercurrent of depth and
meaningful occasions. Busch's, for example, is 123 years old, and you know that
vividly dramatic things have happened there. Romances. Business deals.
Relationships begun and ended. Careers realized and failed. Marriages sought
and sauced. The sweet little waitress who eyes the bus boy and sees greatness in
him. The customers who return every week, season after season. The owner who
spends more money on food quality than he needs to because he feels a special mission. |
| All that and more is Busch's.
Like damned good seafood, clams on the half shell and gorgeously wonderful lobster and she
crab soup. The soup that owner Al Schettig makes in private, with a special spoon
because the ingredients are secret. He has actually videotaped the construction of
the she crab soup for future generations, so that if something happens to him, the soup
will live on. Tell me Busch's is not a special place. |
| A few weeks before summer, I visited
Busch's on a cold, rainy Sunday evening. Al and I were wandering around the place
and he was telling me Busch's stories. The still great football coach. The
politician and his family. The famous actor. Then he wobbles strategically and
tells me something about the she crab soup. I clap my hands over my ears and imagine
the building's 1000 ghosts doing the same. (Cool visual, huh?) |
| I don't want to know, I tell him.
I remember the moment vividly. We are walking into the dining room from the
kitchen. But he has said something and I stop and look at him. He offers a
cherrystone clam smile. The secret of the she crab is...He trusts me that much.
I shake my head. You shouldn't tell people that I tell him. I trust
you, he says, and repeats it again. It's as if I have just seen a private area of
the Vatican, or the White House or the Deletion Room at WaWa. I ponder the secret.
Brilliant, I think. No wonder the place is successful. It's got
history, myth, fancy and great food. |
Ed Hitzel's Restaurant Magazine
Summer 2005 |
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|
She Crab: "Come Here.
Taste this. It's sublime"
Busch's Seafood owner Al Schettig tempts.
Best of the Shore '07 - South Jersey Magazine |
| Best She Crab Soup - Busch's:
Busch's Seafood is the city's oldest seafood restaurant and will celebrate its 125th
anniversary this year. The restaurant has been passed down through five generations
of Busch and Philips families who have owned and run the establishment. The recipe,
guarded like Fort Knox, will never be leaked, so don't even try to ferret this one out of
their files. Just indulge and take your time while you enjoy this creamy, dreamy
crustacean concoction. Served only twice a week, you enter through a back door,
where the she crab is doled out in quarts and pints. |
South Jersey Magazine
Summer 2007 |
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|
|
|
| 10. LoBianco's Coastal Cuisine -
Margate |
| 9. The Anchorage -
Somers Point |
| 8. Menz Restaurant -
Rio Grande |
| 7. Lobster House -
Cape May |
| 6. Mill Street Pub -
Mays Landing |
| 5. The Back Yard -
Stone Harbor |
| 4. Crab Trap - Somers
Point |
| 3. Dock's Oyster House -
Atlantic City |
| 2. East Bay Crab - Egg
Harbor Township |
| 1. Busch's - Sea Isle
City |
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|
South Jersey Magazine,
Volume 2 Issue 5
Summer 2005 |
|
| This is one of the grandaddies of
South Jersey seafood restaurants, having opened in 1882. Servers here know the menu
and take good care of their customers. It's usually crowded but worth the wait. |
| "To have staff working here for
40 years isn't unheard of ," says Al Schettig, fifth-generation operator of the
425-seat establishment within site of Townsend's Inlet. |
| Longevity and quality go
hand-in-hand at Busch's, where bartenders hand-squeeze fresh oranges, limes and lemons
into cocktails. |
| Don't leave without sampling one of
the signature soups: There's a she-crab soup personally made by Schettig using special
pots and utensils, and a robust Manhattan-style clam chowder whose recipe goes back 35
years. Of the 1,000 or so chowder recipes at the Shore, this one is the best.
With bread, it's a meal. |
| Entree-wise, our favorite is the
fried Jersey Shore dinner, a $26 collection of deviled crab, deviled clam, scallops,
shrimp, flounder, petite lobster tail, french fries and slaw that comes piled high on an
oversized platter. |
| Busch's recipe for deviled crabs
is so hush-hush that no more than six people have prepared the delicacy in 90
years. Is there any wonder deviled crab devotees stream here? |
| There are 14 other combination
platters and a dozen other seafood meals either fried, baked or broiled. |
| Meals average $22, which means
you'll need in the vicinity of $65 to impress that special somenone with dinner and a
couple of extras. |
by Bill REINHARDT
May 2000, Courier-Post |
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| In the lore of secret recipes,
Busch's deserves special mention -- and not just because this 117-year-old seafood house
at the southern tip of Sea Isle City has a few of them to keep. But boy, does it
have them. |
| How about that rich deviled crab,
coyly cayenne-spiced and baked in those neat crab-shaped crocks? |
| "I wish I could
tell you, but I can't," says Al Schettig, the fifth generation (by marriage to Kim
Phillips) to operate this classic seashore haunt. "I'm the son-in-law that
isn't going to screw up the family business." |
| OK, Al. I wouldn't get you in
trouble with the ancestor spirits still watching over the sprawling, dimly lit 425-seat
dining rooms, their red Naugahyde booths, and the hodgepodge decor of shark teeth and
family portraits. |
| It suffices to say that there's more
to the enduring flavor of Busch's secret recipes than something written on a
piece of paper. (Though there is that, too, passed from one 40-year employee to
another, and then finally to Schettig.) |
| It starts with a committment to fine
ingredients that is rarely mentioned in such old-time restaurants, from the homemade blue
cheese dressing to the deeply brewed stocks that infuse the dark snapper soup, to the
enormous soft-shell crabs fried to perfection for the Eastern Shore platter, to the sweet,
fresh lump crabmeat that finds its way into all of Busch's best dishes. |
| Of course, there's a special Busch
way to fold that beautiful crab into bechamel sauce -- and it's done with a special
spatula. There are even special women in the back, Schettig tells me, who've done
nothing else for 30 years. |
| And then there's the Spoon, which
Schettig keeps in a safe. It's a century-old antique calibrated specifically for the
seasonings used in Busch's extraordinary sweet and creamy she-crab soup served in all its
glory on Sundays and Tuesdays. |
| And if Schettig does his job as
keeper of the flame, the food will taste exactly the same in 25 years, when his two sons
are old enough to take over. The family secrets, no doubt, will be safe
with them, too |
by Craig LaBan
Inqirer Magazine, 1999 |
