By Krystal Smalley
ksmalley@wbcowqel.com
Whether or not patience is her middle name, Vanessa Schifer certainly has a lot of it when it comes to something she has always wanted.
Schifer finally cut the ribbon to her own restaurant Friday afternoon. She had helmed Gus’s Grill and Grog as manager before the untimely death of local entrepreneur Harmon Guss in 2012. Schifer continued to be the face of Gus’s; that is, until she became the official face – and owner – of Vanessa’s Good Foods and Spirits Friday.
“Right before (Harmon) passed, we started discussing me purchasing. We just didn’t get to finalize everything before he passed,” Schifer explained.
Schifer said she had started waitressing in her teens and had always wanted to own a restaurant. She and her husband Donnie had tried to buy restaurants before but those plans never worked out.
“I always told him that those didn’t work out for a reason,” Schifer said.
Schifer took over a legal manager of Gus’s on Jan. 1, 2013. Since then, it has been a study in patience as she has waited nearly two years for the legal process to finish.
Now, the restaurant is still a little bit of Guss but with a touch of Vanessa.
“It’s been kind of weird in a way because I’ve tried not to change anything,” Schifer said, “because I just believe that if it’s not broke, don’t try to fix it. So I’ve stuck with a lot of Harmon’s menu. I tweaked a couple of things but I haven’t really changed the way that things are done and the product that he served. I believe that you need to serve quality product.”
Below is a video of Bucyrus Area Chamber of Commerce Director Deb Pinion speaking at the ribbon cutting.