From the Daily News:One of the city's best-known German butchers became the latest casualty of the recession when it closed the doors of its last remaining family-owned store last week.
Faced with slumping sales and changing demographics, owners of Karl Ehmer Quality Meats were forced to call it quits at their Ridgewood manufacturing plant and butcher shop, which opened in 1958.
The once-flourishing chain of more than 50 stores from New York to Florida is best known for its German meats, such as bratwurst, knockwurst and frankfurters.
The first store was opened by Hanssler's grandfather in 1932 on 46th St. and Second Ave. in Manhattan. Today, there are still six Karl Ehmer stores in New York, Connecticut and Pennsylvania, but they are all independently owned.
Hanssler, who has run the family business for about 40 years with his brother Alan, recently sold the brand to Bosco's Family Food Company, a distributor based in Oceanside, L.I.
35 comments:
It's sad to see it close. But there is still Morcher's Pork Store on Catalpa and Woodward.
I am going to kill myself. Where will I get my skinless franks and German potato salad now? The Leberkase to die for? The Christmas stollen?
THis city is dead....halal goat anyone?
from German Bratwurst to halal goat. Not my taste for sure... Sad...
DAMM THIS REALLY SUCKS!!!!
I have fond memories of going to Karl Ehmer's store in Flushing with my mother when I was a child.
Sad.
It looks like the store in Fresh Meadows will remain. Whew! I can still get frankfurters and liverwurst there.
http://www.karlehmer.com/locations.html#ny
At least there's still "Morscher's" located on Catalpa Ave...a taste of old Europe.
I travel all the way there from eastern Queens to stock up on their delights.
Their dried or smoked bacon, franks & wursts are yummy.
In fact everything there is just superb...along with their attentive customer service.
Just walking into that place and wafting the aroma makes my mouth water!
Contrast this to all the bodegas with greasy meat sitting for hours in the case and the garish red, blue and yellow awnings boasting 'The best sandwech in Queen.'
Thanks machine. Great job.
Don't worry, everyone. we dont need this clean, safe, and sanitary facility anymore. Im sure they will use the building for a live-chicken slaughter house, with overflowing dumpsters on Fresh Pond road and pools of blood on the sidewalks, thanks to our new "vibrant and diverse" neighbors.
I am glad that most of my friends that patronized this shop are dead. First Niederstien's and now this along with a slew of other shutdowns where I live now..Corona. I now have to travel far to get good STuff. By the way if anyone wants to eat German tonight avoid the Manor Octoberfest on Yellowstone Blvd. Awful place with rape you prices.
sad to see. changing demographics. the europeans are moving in elsewhere now. try astoria - like Muncan. Romanian meat shop, pretty spectacular what they have.
This is am absolute tragedy! Can't this damn city sustain anything????
If you look at the Karl Ehmer website, the Fresh Pond Road location is still pictured at the top of the home page, but it has been deleted under "locations".
"By the way if anyone wants to eat German tonight avoid the Manor Octoberfest on Yellowstone Blvd. Awful place with rape you prices."
Manor Ocktoberfest is the Olive Garden of German food. But I do enjoy their beer. And I can walk there, so that's a good thing. And Chalet Alpina is still open for now, and that's a good thing too.
I used to see Karl Emher himself walking to PS93 school in the morning. He would be sweeping the sidewalk. Sometimes with soap and a garden hose
Yes Ridgewood has sure changed, its become a multicultural refugee slum.
Ridgewood R.I.P
Two words:
Zum Stammtisch
Anonymous 9: I went to the Manor Oktoberfest on Yellowstone recently and thoroughly despised it. Truly awful Weiner Schnitzel and the waiter didn't know that weiss beer was wheat beer. Add to that the typical glossy sports bar atmosphere. Yuk!
I won't be going back there again!
When I was young I loved going there, But they never kept up with the times and took they're customers for granted.The corporate minds that ran Karl knew this and it's a windfall for them financially. If they cared they could have restructured the brand but they they didn't.
Also, who ever said it was "a clean and safe place to work". How would you know unless who worked there.
If anyone still wants Karl, there's one in Fresh Meadows. Eat up.
JO,
There is also a Muncan in Ridgewood on Myrtle Ave. right by Fresh Pond Road. No need to go all the way to Astoria.
They have the same stuff as the one in Astoria (yup, been to both)
"the europeans are moving in elsewhere now. try astoria"
Plenty of Romanians, Albanians and Polish living in Ridgewood. It's the Germans that headed for the hills. The replacements are nowhere near as pleasant to deal with or as clean.
Uh, excuse me, to the poster who left the following steaming piles here,
“Contrast this to all the bodegas with greasy meat sitting for hours…..”
“….. overflowing dumpsters on Fresh Pond road and pools of blood on the sidewalks, thanks to our new "vibrant and diverse" neighbors.”
Thine swastika is showing.
The Fresh Meadows store is excellent in terms of both service and quality. Try their beef, you wont want to ever buy supermarket beef again.
Wasn't this location also the manufacturing plant? If so, where will the remaining Karl Ehmer's products come from? I hope the quality doesn't change.
Wasn't this location also the manufacturing plant? If so, where will the remaining Karl Ehmer's products come from? I hope the quality doesn't change.
is it that difficult to actually read the article? It states exactly where the processing will take place.
"Germans that headed for the hills"
Yep I can attest to this, most the Italians as well.
My block (Seneca and Norman)was a good 70 percent German. By 1987 every German had moved and sold their houses to Yugoslavs or PR's.
(By then many of the real estate offices were owned by Yugoslaves helping their own)
The Slovic landlords would come late at night and drill holes in the trees and pour drain cleaner into them. They didn't like sweeping leaves "no like tree they make mess"
We had one guy with a rooster and chickens in his yard.
He'd buy old vans in Delaware and sell them in the street wile his tenant (wife) and 3 kids collected sec-8 on the 2nd floor address.
Calls to the 104 pct was totally useless
A German deli in Rodgewood 2010 has as much of chance as a guy building horse carriage wheels.
Too add what I know about Karl he wanted Quality.
Look what happened to Coratos and Joe-N-John's pizza when then "Diversified"
Both now suck, the pizza tastes spanish spicy (canned cheap sauce)and fat chance of getting a fresh slice.
They have so many different types of pizza everything must be refrigerated, dried up and re-heated.
Its almost impossible to have quality and quantity at the same time. Throw diversity into the equation and that makes things even worse.
(I now place slate roofing tiles in my oven and make my own)
Im for a quick funeral rather then see an institution go down the drain wile being beaten like a dead horse
Great, another American tragedy, maybe if we get out of the other guys' boarder wars, we'll be able to abide with our immigration laws and uphold Our Constitution! Our tax dollars are enabling our economy to save illigal ventures! What about us? "Rape of the Americans!" Just saying.
Smarter than Babs, where does the article say exactly where processing will take place?
It states that the brand was sold to Bosco's Family Food Co, a "distributor". You are assuming that they manufacture their own products and that they do it in Oceanside. We do not know if this is the case, and it's likely that they do not manufacture their own products.
Bosco's does seem to offer a line of Russian flavored sodas though.
http://chersi.com/about.htm
Never happen Babs all the Democrats running the show see those useless baby makers as voters for life.
Obama just admitted it on a Los Angelos radio station an hour ago:
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-obama-base-20101008,0,3160644.story
Bloomberg and the shits up in Albany are no different
Sad. I purposely would drive there just for the brats. The best outside of Germany.
Changing demographics? How?
I repeat for those that English is their second language - SAD that Karl Ehmer's in Ridgewood is closing.
In addressing the Queens Crap village idiot here WTF does that or the fact that my mother and I shopped in Ehmer's in Flushing have to do with the ONE that remains open IN FRESH MEADOWS!?
AND the other poster is right on the money when he/she asks where the actual processing will take place.
AND - I agree with Crappy - two words - Zum Stammtisch.
In addressing the Queens Crap village idiot here WTF does that or the fact that my mother and I shopped in Ehmer's in Flushing have to do with the ONE that remains open IN FRESH MEADOWS!?
Probably nothing. The comments dont all revolve around you babs, even if the posters names do.
This really sucks. I remember going to Ridgewood as a kid to visit my great grandparents, who lived on Seneca. That was early 80's. I guess that was about the time the neighborhood started going downhill. Sad. My father said it was a great place back in the day.
"Probably nothing. The comments dont all revolve around you babs, even if the posters names do."
oh, I get it - yeah, that makes a lot of sense . . . . . (?)
Bosco's does seem to offer a line of Russian flavored sodas though.
http://chersi.com/about.htm
What does a Russian taste like?
Grammar, punctuation, and syntax are your friends, people!
Anonymous: Be glad your father doest have to see Ridgewood
Almost all of Ridgewood from Seneca Ave south looks like the streets of surrounding ghettos of Houston TX and San Pedro Ca.
Garbage in the gates, Caribbean colors, slobs sitting on the stoop who look at both white and black people as if to say "WTF are you doing around here"
When I go to collect my rents or sleepin a apt I keep (so I technically live on the premises and can discriminate who I rent to) I practically need to "carry" something.
I actually like the hipster area of Buschwick better, I go to some of the bars and jam with the bands. Some parts up by Stier Street&60th lane, north Stockholm by the church are ok (Polish)
It truly is the end of an era. I just told my kids last night about childhood visits to Yorkville. Karl Ehmer on 86th street was wonderful. I hope the quality remains the same with the new manufacturer. I believe I have some of the last genuine brats and knockwurst in my fridge for an Oktoberfest tomorrow. Just bought them at the Danbury, CT store. We will savor every bite.
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