The closing of a popular breakfast and lunch café in Columbus was intended to be temporary — perhaps a week or two.
When Kramer’s Restaurant and Catering at 1606 Central Ave. shut its doors March 19, owners Joe and Debbie Kramer were trying to protect the health of their customers and employees during early stages of a global pandemic.
Four days later, Gov. Eric Holcomb issued his first stay-at-home order, closing all dining rooms across Indiana for two weeks. As orders were extended, the Kramers decided to use the time off to their advantage. The sun and fun of Florida, where Joe’s sister lives, was too tempting an opportunity to pass up.
It’s there where Joe and Debbie began serious conversations about retiring. That seed had been planted a year earlier after Joe, now 55, had a heart attack and stroke in rapid succession. The stresses of the restaurant business over 35 years had taken a toll on him, as well as on Debbie, 65.
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Having expanded their eatery on Central Avenue twice over 17 years after adjacent businesses departed, a third such opportunity presented itself in April when the Book Place next door announced it would be closing after 25 years.
But Debbie made her feelings clear. “No more remodeling,” she said.
Rather than keep the restaurant in the midst of an uncertain business climate, the couple chose a path in search of a different type of climate…wintering in Florida. Joe and Debbie called a May 9 employee meeting to tell their 18 staff members that they would be putting Kramer’s up for sale.
Married 27 years, and working together that entire time, theirs is a story of seeing opportunity and going for it.
Joe was managing the Home Folks restaurant on 25th Street, most recently a Texas Roadhouse, when single-mom Debbie put in an application for a waitress opening. She had a day job at Cosco, now Dorel, but was looking in December 1992 to increase her income to raise teen sons James and Shad Lucas. Joe gave Debbie the job, but their paths didn’t cross much since he worked days and she worked nights.
Five months later, Joe and James — who was also working at the restaurant — made plans for an outing at the Putt Putt Fun Center on Marr Road. But when a chance arose for James to hang out with teens instead, he begged off and Debbie stepped in.
From that first date, the romance between Joe and Debbie progressed quickly.
Within two weeks, they were talking about finding a house together and Debbie met with a prospective landlord, who asked: “Are you guys going to get married?”
She filled Joe in afterward, to which he said: “You want to?” They purchased rings, found a preacher with an open Saturday on his calendar and had a church wedding in Hope six weeks later.
But after working in the restaurant with Joe, Debbie expressed an interest in operating her own place. In 1999, she opened Kramer’s Kitchen on Seventh Street, giving it a NASCAR theme in driver Tony Stewart’s hometown.
Joe was working six to seven days a week at Home Folks and told his boss he wanted a five-day schedule. When that didn’t materialize, Joe joined Debbie at Kramer’s Kitchen.
Four years later, property manager John Counceller, a Kramer’s Kitchen customer, suggested that Joe and Debbie take over a catfish restaurant at a Central Avenue property he owned. They bit on the suggestion, and Kramer’s family restaurant opened in 2003 with seating for 50.
Five years later, Debbie sold Kramer’s Kitchen, which became Jill’s Diner, and Debbie moved to Kramer’s restaurant to join Joe full time. It began a series of fortuitous business moves for the couple.
When an adjacent space opened up on Central Avenue in 2012, Kramer’s Restaurant expanded, increasing seating capacity to 100. When a similar opportunity came about five years later, they expanded again — increasing seating to 176.
With strong support from manager Brandon Lucas, who had worked with them since the early days on Central, “we recouped our money within three months,” Joe said.
Kramer’s had developed a reputation for ample serving sizes at a reasonable cost — and business was brisk, pouring 2,000 cups of coffee and serving up 4,000 eggs a week.
“Silver-dollar pancakes were this big,” Joe said, holding his hands out in the shape of a full-sized dinner plate.
Omelettes also filled a plate, as well as customer stomachs during breakfast hours.
On the lunch menu, “breaded tenderloins were our biggest hit,” Joe said.
They measured at least 10 inches long and weighed 10 to 14 ounces, the couple said.
Keeping pace meant Joe being up by 3:45 a.m., a schedule that Debbie also kept when she ran Kramer’s Kitchen.
But as Debbie dealt with knee problems, she cut back to weekends-only as hostess and cashier, and Joe worked five or six 10-hour shifts each week..
The stress resulted in Joe’s heart attack in March 2019. After his hospital release, he took one day off before returning to work. Just as quickly, he suffered a stroke.
After a stent was installed, Joe’s heart problems eased. But other health issues lingered. And Debbie, who had her first knee replacement eight years ago, had her second one May 26.
“Kramer’s has been the place where strangers became friends, and friends became family,” manager Lucas wrote in a May 9 Facebook post announcing his bosses’ planned retirement.
Then as summer arrived, the Kramers got a purchase offer that cemented their retirement plans.
“I hate not coming in here, but I know it’s for the best,” said Debbie, her eyes turning misty. Most of all, Debbie will miss interacting with customers such as Norman and Norma Minor, who have patronized Kramer restaurants for most of their 36 years of married life.
“I loved that fried chicken,” said Norman, 93. “Oh, the tenderloins.. ”
“Huge,” said Norma, 88, finishing her husband’s sentence.
New owner Vijender “Vijay” Kumar, 40, a native of India, hopes to keep the Minors and other Kramer’s Restaurant customers when he opens Café Central in the same location.
Around the corner, Kumar has been operating the Apna Kitchen restaurant and the Appana Bazaar grocery store featuring foods from India.
Café Central, which Kumar hopes to open the last week of July, will be his seventh company — all in the food business. He has three restaurants and three grocery stores featuring Indian foods — in Indianapolis and Fishers in addition to his flagship Columbus operation.
“Same crew, same menu, same hours,” Kumar said of his first entry into American cuisine. Only the sign out front and the name on employee paychecks will change, he said.
Kumar purchased the furnishings, equipment and remaining food inventory from the Kramers, who opted to keep their restaurant’s name for themselves.
“This is our legacy,” Debbie said of the Kramer’s Restaurant brand, with Joe nodding in agreement.
That opportunity wasn’t going to escape them either.
Retired editor Tom Jekel writes a weekly column that appears each Sunday on The Republic’s Opinion page. Contact him by email through [email protected].
