Almost 75 years ago, Hugo Schreiner opened his eponymous sausage shop in a little red and white building on 7th Street, two blocks north of Osborn Road. For millions of Valley commuters, the building and its distinctive “Schreiner’s Home Made Sausage” sign has been an icon of old Phoenix and its tradition of small, family-owned businesses.
Today, menus from diners to delis to fine food restaurants specify Schreiner’s for their breakfasts, barbecues, cassoulets, charcuterie and other sausage-based items.
Now operated by Nancy Schiller and her family, the little shop still stands, in its original colors and with its original sign. Many of the recipes are Hugo’s, and the tradition of friendly service and quality products continues.
Step in the front door and you’re sharing a compact space with other customers, facing a long counter jam-packed with dozens of varieties of pork, chicken, turkey and beef sausage; homemade lunch meats; veal and pepper loaf; smoked ham hocks and country ham; several versions of bratwurst; mortadella and bologna; slab bacon; two kinds of chorizo – the list is long enough that you could order a different one every week and it would take almost a year to go through them all.
There’s also sauerkraut – what’s sausage without it? – from Mrs. Klein’s Pickle Co., another local landmark since 1945, along with salads, chips and other go-withs.
But the stars are the sausages. And the odds are Schiller’s daughter, Lyndsey Schiller, will be one of the folks serving you. “I’m the sausage slinger,” she laughs.
Hugo Schreiner opened his shop in 1952, grinding meats then stuffing casings with a hand-cranked machine. Thirteen-year-old Gary Schiller, who lived in the neighborhood, came to work there, learned the business and ended up buying it after he ran it a few years, Nancy Schiller said. He was just 20 at the time, with a $5,000 loan from his parents to help with the purchase.
“I came to work here when I was in college,” Nancy said. “I lived in the neighborhood also. Gary and I ended up getting married and the rest is history. I kind of ran the retail store and he did production, though we both did a bit of everything.”
Gary Schiller passed away in 2002 and Nancy took over the reins. Today, while she still does a bit of everything, Nancy focuses on running the business side, with Lyndsey mainly in the shop and son Casey Schiller focusing on the production kitchen, in a building across the parking lot from the shop. Lyndsey’s youngest son, Emilio Puente, 11, is on site as well, helping out where he can.
On this day, workers are running a huge machine, stuffing Mexican chorizo into 50-pound bags that will go out to local restaurants and stores. Casey is pulling racks of turkey sausage, redolent with smoke, out of the oven, and other workers are breaking down whole boneless pork shoulders to ready them for the grinder.
“We make pretty much everything in the case except aged lunch meats like prosciutto, hard salami and Genoa salami,” Nancy said.
Racks of sausage, redolent with smoke, are pulled out of the oven (photo by Darryl Webb for North Central News) Hugo Schreiner’s hand-cranked sausage-stuffer is no longer in use; now painted bright pink, it stands outside the kitchen building (photo by Darryl Webb for North Central News). A long counter is jam-packed with dozens of varieties of pork, chicken, turkey and beef sausage, along with homemade lunch meats and much more (photo by Darryl Webb for North Central News) Plenty of “go-withs” are available to customers who stop by (photo by Darryl Webb for North Central News)
Most of it never reaches the sales counter in the little shop.
“Eighty to 82 percent of our business is wholesale,” Nancy said. “A lot of the Mexican chorizo you get in restaurants here comes from us. It’s our biggest seller. The percentage of products that are sold at the shop varies with the seasons and demand.”
For many customers, a trip to Schreiner’s is a tradition, even if it’s just for a certain holiday season.
“People come in at Christmas,” Nancy said. “They have to have the potato sausage for Christmas; it’s like a homecoming.”
For the upcoming holidays, starting with Oktoberfest, demand will pick up for brats of all types, then sage and other sausages for Thanksgiving and Christmas stuffing, and maple blueberry sausage for breakfasts holiday brunches.
And there’s another holiday specialty. Say you have a sausage recipe that’s been handed down for generations in your family. The thought of breaking down whole pork shoulders, grinding and seasoning the meat then stuffing all those casings, even if you have the equipment and the expertise, may be too much to face. But there’s a solution: Schreiners can make it for you. Just give them the recipe.
“We have a lot of people we do that for,” Nancy said. “You have to have a minimum of 25 pounds or it won’t work in the grinder and stuffer.”
It’s that tradition of extra service that helps make shops like Schriner’s an integral part of their communities, places that knit them together, Nancy said. “And it’s not just the food business. It can be the little auto parts store or drug that’s been there forever. You know the people, they know you, the service is better.
“We’re so blessed and so grateful to be part of this community, because we can keep doing the same thing. We haven’t changed anything, while everything changes around us,” Nancy said.
One thing that has changed is the machinery, such as that big stuffing machine that supplanted Hugo’s hand-cranked sausage-stuffer, now painted bright pink and standing outside the kitchen building.
“I hope people know how thankful we are for them,” Nancy said. “It’s not just our customers, it’s our vendors, our sales people, our workers here in the back. We’ve been afforded time to build relationships and we’re all about that. We stay true to what we do.
“If there were a little sausage shop in the Hallmark movies, it would be Schreiner’s.”
Schreiner’s Fine Sausage, 3601 N. 7th St., is open for retail customers from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Wednesday through Friday; 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., Saturday. For information, call 602-265-2939 or visit www.schreinerssausage.com.
