Seeking new experiences and adventures Christiane Schmidt moved from her native Germany to San Francisco in 1997. Having worked sixteen years in the restaurant industry prior to emigrating to America Christiane was confident she could run her own eatery. Like many Bay Area entrepreneurs, Christiane had the industry-specific knowledge and experience required to succeed but came to Renaissance in 1997 to obtain the comprehensive business training she needed.
Christiane was a standout student in Renaissance’s 14-week intensive Business Planning class and was honored by being given the Best Business Plan Award. Using her Renaissance small business training Christiane opened Walzwerk, a traditional East German restaurant in 1999. Located in the up and coming Mission District, Walzwerk became an overnight success and has been featured in numerous Bay Area newspapers as well as named one of the top 50 Bay Area restaurants by San Francisco Magazine. Walzwerk is experiencing consistent growth year after year and currently grosses over $500,000 a year, serves up to 120 people an evening and has fifteen employees.
Eager to have an even greater presence in the community, Christiane launched a new restaurant that serves more contemporary German fare. Opening a second location wasn’t easy and Christiane spent many hours wrangling over permits and paid the rent on her dream location, a converted grocery store for a full year before she even opened its doors to the public. When Schmidt’s finally opened in May 2009 it featured an extensive selection of imported German beers and a menu featuring twelve types of sausage in addition to unique dishes such as house-braised saukerkraut. Schmidt’s is already generating the type of buzz one would expect from Christiane and has been featured in SF Weekly, the Examiner and 7x7 and serves upwards of 140 customers during its four hour dinner alone.
With two successful restaurants and almost 30 employees, Christiane obviously has a knack for business but credits Renaissance for helping to get her off the ground, “Because of Renaissance I started my business. They helped me turn my dream into something real and doable by providing a perfect guideline for how to open a business.” Christiane has shown her appreciation by referring friends to Renaissance programs and giving generously to the Annual Benefit. Christiane displays this same generosity in the way she runs her businesses and humbly says her biggest success will be if everyone who comes to her restaurants leaves happy.