Sue says: Why mess with a good thing?
Sue Shields has owned Yogi’s Hoagies, a stalwart staple on South State Street, since 1992. The sandwich shop has been there for more than 40 years.
Since Shields took over, not much has changed.
The drive-through was reopened in 1993, the walls were painted in a lighter color in 1995 and the porch was replaced with siding in 1999, but other than that, a customer who hasn’t stopped by for 21 years wouldn’t notice much difference.
And that’s just the way Shields likes it. She wants customers to be able to stop by anytime, assured that everything is just as they remember it.
Prior to buying Yogi’s, Shields had spent years in the restaurant business, working as general manager at Schmidt’s Restaurant und Sausage Haus and an Olive Garden franchise. When she learned the owner of Yogi’s was looking to sell, she jumped at the chance, eager for the opportunity to work for herself.
The role of an owner is decidedly more difficult than that of a manager, Shields says, but she forged ahead. More than two decades later and despite ever-increasing competition for hungry customers – for example, neither Polaris Fashion Place nor Easton Town Center existed when Shields took over – Yogi’s is still going strong.
“One might say I rose to the challenge,” she says.
Nostalgia is a big selling point for Yogi’s, and Shields has a lot of dedicated customers, from recent returnees to Westerville who left after graduation years ago to longtime regulars who drop by in classic or antique cars.
“(Customers) will actually apologize – ‘Oh, I haven’t been here in a while,’” says Shields.
Shields also aims to keep the atmosphere as friendly as possible, inviting customers to make themselves at home. “Turn on the TV to any channel you want,” she says.
One of the shop’s most enduring memes is “Sue Says.”
Shields’ management style differed from that of the previous owner, she says, and some of the employees she inherited were taken aback by her strictness. In 1993, one of them added the words to the store’s name sign out front to reference Shields’ telling her employees what to do.
“I came to work one day … and the sign said, ‘Sue Says,’” says Shields.
The prank soon turned into a running joke among customers. Speech bubbles bearing the words appear in various places, but the original is still on the sign out front.
The year “Sue Says” was added to the sign, Yogi’s grabbed attention by opening one of central Ohio’s first Rush Rooms – sections of bars and restaurants in which pundit Rush Limbaugh’s radio show was played for attendees. The rooms were popular in the early 1990s, when his criticism of President Bill Clinton made Limbaugh a household name.
Yogi’s has one dining room, so it was all one big Rush Room from noon to 3 p.m. weekdays when Limbaugh’s show was broadcast.
“Too many people complained about it, so I took it out” in 1995, she says.
The Yogi’s menu contains pizzas, salads, garlic bread, mozzarella sticks, pickles, soups, bagels and homemade desserts, but the titular hoagies – in 4-, 8- and 16-inch denominations – are by far the most popular offerings. The No. 1 seller is the Italian hoagie (salami, ham and cheese), often in a package deal with a bag of chips and a drink.
“We call it Sue’s Super Deal,” Shields says.
Other offerings include the usual deli standards – turkey, salami, roast beef, meatball, etc. – and specialties such as chicken parmesan, chicken bacon ranch, BLT and Reuben. The shop also sells 3-, 4- and 6-foot party hoagies for big events such as football games and graduation parties.
Shields is a perfectionist about the quality of the sandwiches and the methods used to make them, which she says is another key point with customers. She and her employees still weigh the contents of each sandwich, still use bread from Auddino’s Italian Bakery and still follow the formulas in use when she took over.
“People eat a sandwich here who haven’t had one for 15 years, and it’s the same sandwich,” says Shields.
Though she has long been a resident of north Columbus, Shields is a big supporter of Westerville and organizations within it. She frequently donates food and other prizes to Westerville City Schools groups, particularly the sports teams, for contests, games, tournaments and other special occasions.
She often donates to the Westerville Division of Police’s causes as well and participated in the Rotary Club of Westerville’s Independence Day parade for 19 years. Shields is also known in the community as a huge Buckeye football fan.
She has three grown daughters – Tammy Sue, Penny Sue and Kelly Sue – and five grandchildren. Penny works at Yogi’s; Tammy and Kelly live in other states.
A collection of plants and flowers near the order counter has been there since June 2012, when Charles “Buck” Van Natta Jr., Shields’ longtime partner, died. Customers brought the items in memory of Van Natta, and Shields has kept them as a tribute. Her husband, Tim, father of her three daughters, is also deceased.
Though they were once owned by the same person, there is no longer any affiliation between the Yogi’s in Westerville and the one on Morse Road in north Columbus.
Garth Bishop is editor of Westerville Magazine. Feedback welcome at gbishop@cityscenemediagroup.com.
