Kurt Schulz Deli reshapes into a breakfast destination, with cakes, pastries and meats

Four years ago, Brian Kennedy opened the doors on his dream job. After decades of baking experience and working for others, he has his own place: Kurt Schulz Delicatessen and Pastry Shoppe, 8752 N. Deerwood Drive, Brown Deer.

On any given day, you’ll also find members of his family behind the counter to serve up the shop’s comfort food staples, from breakfast fare to the popular roast beef and pizza slices plus homemade soups, salads and desserts. In fact, he learned the longtime business was up for sale because his daughter, Rachel Kolarich, worked there through high school and while attending baking and pastry classes at MATC. Now, she creates their custom cake orders.

For decades, the deli was known for German staples, and since taking over Kennedy has maintained some of those traditions while adding pastries and new flavors. German potato salad is always on the menu, while bienenstich is a specialty served every Saturday along with his fresh doughnuts.

Kurt Schulz Delicatessen and Pastry Shoppe is open 6:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. Find the menu and more at kurtschulzdeli.com.

Becoming a baker

Before I got married, 32 years ago, I got into the habit of baking cookies for Christmas. I was giving them out as gifts to friends, to the point where everybody was expecting them. They’re good. They start with butter. I created a niche.

I got married, and my wife and I married and moved to Asheville, North Carolina, in 1990. I started working in a country club and went to culinary school. I got some baking skill and came back to Milwaukee in 1994 with our first daughter. I worked at a couple bakeries, ended up at Miller Bakery and Hartter’s for a few years.

A break from the business

I left the industry because I had a neck injury and had to have surgery. … But I’ve always kept my hand in the baking aspect. I ran the Easter breakfast at my church for about 18 years. I’d make a bunch of Danish doughs and the high school kids would come in and be my apprentices. They’d roll everything out, and people would donate money so these kids could go on a trip.

A dream and a delicatessen

My daughter, my youngest, Rachel (Kolarich), who is now my pastry chef, she was working at Kurt Schulz Deli while in high school. She also used it as her co-op in college (at Milwaukee Area Technical College). We found out they were selling. My dream gig was to own my own bakery …

It was nice to purchase the deli and add the bakery. They didn’t do pastries. We do everything from scratch. I’m also a coffee snob, so we added Anodyne. …

Now our hours are 6:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, and we’re a breakfast destination. We added breakfast the last six months, and Thursday, Friday, Saturday we do a full-service breakfast, but only about five things on the menu. The top is eggs with toast, but I’ve got really cool French toast, and biscuits and gravy, all made in house.

Custom cakes

We do cakes to order, and that is Cakes With Rachel. We like to have orders a few days ahead of time. She makes the best cakes ever, chocolate, banana, vanilla, carrot, red velvet.

One of the fun ones is for a woman who orders the blackest red velvet with the blackest icing for major birthdays.

Working with family

Rachel was here first. She knows way more than I do, and she is amazing. She did go to bakery and pastry arts school at MATC. …

There are more family here, too. My nephew Steven Kennedy Jr. has been with me since Day 1. He’s 23 now, and he’s grown into a great young man. There is nothing he can’t do here. He’s my brother’s son, and Stephen Sr. and my other nephew Shane do catering for me. My brother Scott has come and helped at times. It is really nice to have family helping. …

My wife, Robin Kolarich, has been incredibly supportive in this endeavor. She comes in Saturdays, and I could not have done it without her as co-owner.

Plan ahead

I make bienenstich every Saturday. It is incredibly popular. During Germanfest it sells out. I learned how to make it at Hartter’s, a traditional German bakery, before they closed. I don’t use their recipe, but I use their idea with my own little spin. I make it from scratch, and my sweet dough is butter based.

His twists on traditions

When I bought this deli, it was considered a traditional German-style delicatessen. They had German potato salad, a ton of other German things. I am German, but I wanted to open it up to more European ideas. I like the idea of spanning the whole area.

We do Danish, French pastries and macarons, and the holidays we do the stollen, which is a very traditional Dresden style. Our cookies, I start with butter and end with butter. That is the fat of choice in our shop.

On Fat Tuesday, we do the paczki. Last year our paczki sold out. We made king cakes. Those were super popular. My wife and I had gone to New Orleans two weeks before Fat Tuesday. I came back and made samples, put it on the internet. People came out for that. It was a blast.

His favorite time of year

Holidays are the best time of the year to be in the bakery. I love making stollen. I’ve got an awesome recipe. When I worked at Hartter’s, we used to have Stollen Saturdays. There were weekends we’d do, like, 800. I’m not doing 800 here. I sold 120, and that’s plenty.

Daily desserts

Monday through Saturday, we make the regular Danish, fruit Danish and some with chocolate chip toppings. Apple jacks is one of my signature recipes.  I make this Danish dough and use it for about eight different products. My cinnamon twists, my elephant ears, you can never run out of those. Rachel started making molasses cookies recently, and they’ve taken off like crazy.

Must-try meats

We do boil our own corned beef, and we do probably 60 to 70 pounds at a time. We go through that much in a week. I put it up against anybody’s in town. We went through our trial and error that first year we were open, trying different brands and purveyors. I get this product out of Detroit called Grobbel’s. We have to boil it correctly.

Our roast beef is our best seller, for sure. We take a top round and we put a seasoning on it. We roast it to medium rare and slice it thin. I was never much for roast beef until I owned this place, but this is medium rare with the horseradish sauce on it. It is outstanding.

Hot ham and rolls here

We do ham and rolls on Saturday, making the Kaiser rolls from scratch ourselves. We sell for $9 a pound, and you get a pack of rolls.

What he can’t take off the menu

The roast beef, our ham, and the German potato salad, those can never go away. The German potato salad is a scratch recipe, and we sell it to a couple different restaurants in town.

We do a pickled beet here that people absolutely love. I absolutely hate pickled beets. I make sure I try them once a year, but I am just reminded why I don’t like them.

Soup season

We make all our soup from scratch. I went to culinary school. It is so much easier and tastes so much better.

I start with a roux and butter and heavy cream in my cream soups. My mushroom soup, people crave that. We use fresh mushrooms and saute them with white wine, butter, olive oil, salt and pepper before we make the soup.

His spin on the space

We just marked our fourth anniversary. When I bought the place, I gutted the kitchen, stud to stud, wall to wall. … We were able to go to the Brown Deer Historical Society, and they opened their vault to us. There are pictures of my building from 1912, there is a dirt road out front with a hitching post …

I live in Brown Deer. I have lived here for 28 years now. I had gone to Kurt Schulz Deli when my daughter started working here, but when I started getting interested in buying the place, I went to everyone I knew. … You ever go to Kurt Schulz Deli? About 95% would say “Where? Larry’s Market?” No, it is across the street from Larry’s Market. …

I wanted to create this coffee shop place that has pastries, you get your coffee and a comfortable place to sit with the wi-fi. That’s what I wanted in my community for me. So I created it.

His name is Brian

I walk around the community and a lot of people call me Kurt. I just say hi. People ask why I didn’t change the name. It had been here for more than 40 years. I didn’t need to change the name.

More: After being laid off during the pandemic, a south side man started a garlic farm

Fork. Spoon. Life. explores the everyday relationship that local notables (within the food community and without) have with food. To suggest future personalities to profile, email psullivan@gannett.com.

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Kurt Schulz deli now a breakfast spot, with cakes, pastries and meats