Q&A with Alan Hanselman and Gail Hettinger on Tourism Leadership Award
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In 2024, the Indiana Destination Development Corp. presented Hanselmans Inc. with the Will Koch Indiana Tourism Leadership Award. The parent company owns Schnitzelbank Restaurant & Catering, Klubhaus61 and Hampton Inn in Jasper.
Betty and Larry Hanselman founded the Schnitzelbank in Dubois County in 1961. Their children, Alan Hanselman and Gail Hettinger, took over the restaurant in the 1990s, later adding the hotel and venue. The brother and sister spoke with Inside INdiana Business about receiving the Will Koch award and why Jasper has become a tourism hub for area attractions.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Tell me about the history of Schnitzelbank Restaurant & Catering.
Hanselman: Dad started it in 1961. He had a small tavern and played a lot of softball. He had a lot of softball buddies, and he had a good beer business. And then another tavern down the road would start up, and they’d have their beer about 5 cents cheaper than he did, and he’d lose all of his business and have to start all over.
He did that about three times and noticed everybody would always come back for the food. That’s when he started developing good food, and he didn’t lose his business anymore. Over the years, since this was more of a German community, he asked people around town whether they brought any original recipes over from Germany and found out that there were quite a few people who did. He bought them, and those are still the recipes we use today.
Catering was added in 1992. It was a good way to expand the business at the time. We were told at the Indiana Restaurant Association that a lot of people were going into that. It was a good way to expand your business without having to build on.
Well, it became so popular we had to build on because it was slowing our kitchen down, especially on the weekends when you are busy with catering. We couldn’t kick out the food fast enough in our back kitchen, so we eventually had to build a whole separate building just to handle it. We also have trucks that have full kitchens.
Talk about the addition of Klubhaus61.
Hanselman: A lot of these halls that are in the little towns around us had clubs, and they used to allow outside catering. To make more money, they decided to not allow outside catering anymore, and they put kitchens in them. We were losing a lot of weddings because we didn’t have a hall.
When this [building] became available, it was the old Jasper Country Club. They made it into The Parklands. They sold the land to the city of Jasper. We bought the building and turned it into a wedding hall. But we do a lot of other functions, too.
What about owning the No. 1 Hampton Inn in Indiana?
Hettinger: We opened that Hampton Inn in 1999. I remember it because we were in that hotel before it turned to 2000 and that was a big milestone in the country.
We had a great general manager who was with us for almost 25 years, and she even worked her way up into Hilton and taught some classes and did some things for them. But she retired, and now my daughter is running it.
We score high in customer service, and people love coming there. They like it being next to the Schnitzelbank. They can eat here. We have beautiful countryside to come and see, and we have a lot of things going on.
Hanselman: Jasper has a lot of industry, too, in town. A lot of the factories put up their salespeople over there because they like to entertain them. And with the restaurant being right next door, they can have a few beers and not have to worry about them having to drive. They just walk back over to the hotel. Plus, Holiday World [in Spencer County] helps us a lot in the summer months. That’s just 20 minutes away.
Hettinger: We added 18 rooms to our hotel in 2018 to help through the summer with people coming in for Holiday World.
What makes Jasper and Dubois County a tourist destination?
Hanselman: Holiday World, during the summer, that’s the big one. But French Lick [in Orange County] is only 20 minutes away. They stuck $500 million into that town. They have the No. 1 and No. 3 three golf courses in Indiana. The hotels are phenomenal they’ve redone up there, and they have gambling. Patoka Lake is another one within about 15 miles of Jasper. We’re the hub of all these [destinations]. We’re the ones that have all the hotel rooms and the restaurants.
Why is tourism important for Jasper and Dubois County?
Hanselman: The hotels and the restaurants, that’s what they survive off of. Right now, our downtown is being revitalized because of the tourism and the people that come in. We also have a train in Jasper when they do train rides. So without tourism, none of that stuff would exist.
We wouldn’t be as big as we are without tourism. The business guys spend a lot of money here, but it’s only maybe the first three or four months of the year when a lot of them travel. The rest of the year, you survive off tourism. On the weekends, you don’t see many local cars here [at the restaurant] because we’re so busy. They stay away on the weekends because they don’t want to wait an hour to get in for a meal.
What is the state of tourism right now in Indiana?
Hettinger: When I was a child, there were always things to go to, but there are so many more planned events now and publicized. People come into our place of business and say Indiana is a beautiful state. I’m still discovering stuff we have or stuff that’s going on because there is so much more. Indiana is doing a great job with tourism, and I hope it continues.
Hanselman: When I was younger, if you talk to anybody in Indianapolis, they didn’t even know that there was a southern Indiana. They said that Indiana stopped when you got south of Indianapolis, and they don’t say that anymore.
What does the phrase Hoosier Hospitality mean to you?
Hanselman: To me, it’s the friendliness. I hear that a lot from people up north. People are afraid of each other. Down here, that’s not the case. They want to know where you’re from. They want to know where you live and how you like the area. You normally don’t get out of here without somebody asking you those questions. Our waitresses are always interested in knowing where people are coming from.
Hettinger: One of our mottos is, let our family serve your family. That’s a big part of hospitality. Because everybody who comes in here, we want them to have the best experience we can provide. At the hotel, the clubhouse and the Schnitzelbank, we look to hire people with great personalities and hospitality because we can train the rest of it. It’s people caring about people. It’s part of who we are and what the state of Indiana and the hospitality industry is all about.
How does it feel to receive the Will Koch Indiana Tourism Leadership Award?
Hettinger: It was overwhelming. I know [the Koch] family. I did not know Will personally, but we’ve always tried to follow their example. We are deeply honored and grateful that they even considered us.
Hanselman: We were shocked, but it was our local tourism department that recommended us to get it. They kept it pretty quiet, so we didn’t know much about it until we got it. We were humbled, that’s for sure.
What’s next for Hanselmans Inc.?
Hanselman: We are redoing our Glockenspiel [tower] because it’s got some years on it. It was built in 1988, and the technology’s come so far since then. That should be ready by spring of next year. We’ve wanted to get more into outdoor seating. Outdoor seating became very popular during COVID, and people still enjoy that.
We got enough land here to where we can also put up another hotel. That may be something down the road, maybe a few years yet. Jasper always seems like they’re short on hotel rooms because of the tourism.