During the state-ordered shutdown during the pandemic, Steven Schuster unchained himself.
Now the owner of
Sandusky Bay Pancake House, which blends a creative breakfast-centric menu with specialty coffee drinks and alcoholic refreshments, the Perkins Township resident had spent his career managing and owning franchise locations of corporate eateries.
In the late 1990s, he was running a location of The Cooker in Indianapolis when the opportunity arose to buy the Perkins Restaurant acquired by his father, Dick, in 1966, a few years after its opening. That wasn’t a slam dunk – another prospective buyer was offering more, and the younger Schuster and his wife, Valerie, weren’t sure they wanted to make that life-changing decision, “but it worked out and was all part of God’s plan,” he says during a recent phone interview.
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Kevin LeeA mural welcomes customers to Sandusky Bay Pancake House.After taking over, he modernized the point-of-sale system and added a patio to the location, on Milan Road south of East Bogart Road, where Danny Boys now resides.
He also opened a Max & Erma’s location further north on U.S. 250, in a building now home to a Penn Station East Coast Subs and a Chipotle Mexican Grill. Max & Erma’s Inc. – the company, not his location – filed for bankruptcy protection in 2009, which led to the changes in that building.
The company behind Perkins also filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2011 and 2019, long after Schuster had relocated his location to 4710 Milan Road, a bit south of Chipotle and Penn Station.
The pandemic brought time for change in the first half of 2020.
“I didn’t want to wait around for a third bankruptcy, so my thought was, ‘I’m a really good swimmer. I can swim to shore on my own – I do not need to go down with the ship,’” he says.
He left the brand and launched the Sandusky Bay Pancake House – and between April 1 and June 1 created a logo, menu and new look for the place as part of the rebrand – and, he says, hasn’t looked back.
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Kevin LeeSteve Schuster owns the popular eatery Sandusky Bay Pancake House.“We have more than doubled our volume with less operating hours,” Schuster says. “It’s just been the highlight of my career to be able to have such a wonderful staff and great people to work with to help build this business from the ground up.”
After all that time in the world of corporate eateries, he sought to embrace the mantra of “Eat. Drink. Think. Local.”
“We wanted to use as many local vendors as we could,” he says. “We wanted (customers) to know if they were supporting us, they were supporting all of the other local brands that we support.”
Counted among the more than 15 area businesses they buy from is the century-old Peerless Ovens.
Running an independent restaurant allowed for a different approach.
“We’re not as concerned about short-term profitability as we are about long-term guest loyalty, and I think that’s a big flip from the corporate restaurants,” he says.
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Courtesy of Steve SchusterSandusky Bay Pancake House serves more than just breakfast items.But while he adds the main priorities have been to run smooth shifts and “deliver great food every time,” the business success has been steady.
“We’ve had – let me see now – 55 of 56 months that we’ve been open have been positive sales over the previous year,” he says. “The only month we were flat with last year was last January. Other than that, we’ve been positive every single month over the previous year.”
Perusing the menu, you can get caught up with the wildly inventive items in the Pick of the Patch section, such as Pancake Pot Pie and Pumpkin Roll French Toast, as well as Sand-Town Sandwiches such as the Pollo Picante, Lite Bites including Avocado Toast and Old School Burgers like the Sunrise Waffle Burgers.
“Pancakes are our No. 1 seller – that’s, you know, within our name – but as creative as our menu is, it’s still bacon and eggs, you know, omelets – the basics (that are ordered the most frequently),” he says. “We sell a lot of fun stuff, but at the end of the day, it’s bacon and eggs and pancakes.”
Other selling points are the covered patio and bar – thanks to a liquor license brought over from one of Schuster’s former businesses – with beverage offerings including “brunch cocktails” and locally produced beers and wines.
The business stays connected to and looks to expand its customer base through social media, with a presence on
Facebook,
Instagram and
TikTok, where
one quick – and particularly creamy – clip has scored more than eight million views.
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Courtesy of Steve SchusterSpecialty items like the S'mores french toast are popular breakfast item fare at Sandusky Bay Pancake House.It also
partners with local network BCSN on the Sandusky Bay Pancake House Player of the Game, honoring someone at the end of a broadcast.
“If the student athlete is articulate, it’s a great interview,” Schuster says. “If the student athlete stumbles, it’s just fun and cute.
“At the very end, (they’re asked), ‘What are you gonna do next?’ And they say, ‘I’m going to Sandusky Bay Pancake House.’ And then all their teammates pour water on them and jump around and stuff like that. It’s just fun to be part of the local fabric of the community.”
As for the business, he’s always thinking about how to “keep all the momentum going,” which speaks to why he not long ago added a second set of bathrooms, which will allow for an upcoming remodel of the existing restrooms.
Could this story one day go full-circle, with Schuster handing Sandusky Bay Pancake House off to an offspring?
“My daughters (Caroline, 26, and Allie, 23) are not interested in the restaurant business, so we’ll see what the transition will be someday,” he says. “I’m still young enough to keep going, so I haven’t thought about that much.”