Family and fish fries: Schult’s Country Inn serves its final Friday night crowd

The doors of Schult’s Country Inn have closed for the final time, marking the end of a family legacy and the conclusion of a beloved era for the Hinz, Schult, and Pfaff families. For nine decades, this country tavern and restaurant served as a cherished sanctuary of laughter, warm fellowship, and Friday-night fish fries. Its final day of business on June 26, 2026, was the culmination of a half-century of devotion by owners Diane and Lee Pfaff, who decided it was time to step away while they were healthy and ready to enjoy their well-earned retirement together.

From ginseng to gin: the 1936 origins
The story began in 1936, shortly after the end of Prohibition. Diane’s grandparents, Martin and Marie Hinz, had originally constructed a simple garage on their property next to their house, intending to use it for storing their ginseng crops. But seeing an opportunity for a more fruitful venture, Martin decided to start a tavern. But where?
“Let’s make it handy; we’ll convert our garage into a bar,” Martin said according to Diane’s account. She said family lore suggests a car was never actually parked in the building. Instead, that decision birthed Martin Hinz Hall.
The Hinz family was of Pomeranian descent, and for years, three generations lived together in the farmhouse next door to the tavern, where speaking Platt German — or Low German — was the everyday custom.

In those early days, the tavern lacked indoor plumbing. Martin carried water from the house to wash hands, and he kept his sodas and beer cold by storing them in a large wooden barrel placed down in the nearby creek.
Diane said she still remembers the final walk she took with her grandfather when she was just five years old. Martin was in failing health and took little Diane by the hand to walk around the farm buildings one last time. When Martin’s wife, Marie, scolded her for letting him walk in his weak state, Martin said she should not scold the little girl, because he simply wanted to see the farm one more time before he passed away. He died just a few days later.
Beside running the bar, the Hinz family also delved into healing, purchasing a five-foot-tall metal box on legs called a “Donner’s Machine.” Patients would lie on a bed under colored glass slides to cure various ailments. Diane said she and her sister still have the machine and its original instruction booklet.
When Martin and Marie Hinz retired, their youngest daughter, Elsie, and her husband, Walter Schult, took over the business. Walter kept some of the local, colorful secrets alive. Diane said her father used to harvest a local weed, dry it on newspapers upstairs for two weeks, and put it into bottles of whiskey and brandy. This homemade concoction was a popular remedy for farmers’ “stomach aches,” hidden away in the cooler from state inspectors.

An accidental legacy and the wedding that built the hall

It was Elsie who unexpectedly started what would become a Friday night culinary legacy. One Friday night, two couples returning from their local bowling league walked into the tavern and asked Walter and Elsie if they would fry up some fish right behind the bar. Diane said her mother fried the fish and served it alongside homemade chocolate and oatmeal cake topped with sweet, seven-minute frosting.
Word of the mouth-watering meals spread rapidly through the community, and soon Elsie was frying up fish and serving her famous cake regularly.
When Walter and Elsie’s other daughter, Darlene, decided to marry Donald “Donnie” Keeser in 1960, Walter made a big decision.
“We need to build and add a hall for the wedding reception,” he said. A local craftsman was hired to custom-make all of the wooden tables and chairs for the new expansion, transforming the cozy tavern into a spacious banquet hall capable of seating 160 guests.
Growing up in the tavern, the two Schult sisters had very different experiences. While Darlene loved helping out, Diane absolutely dreaded it when she was young, Diane said.
“I hated the bar,” she said with a laugh. “I hid under that little cupboard when I had to come in here.” Diane pointed to a cupboard behind the bar.
Diane was shy and said she struggled with a severe stutter from fourth through sixth grade and could barely bring herself to speak to customers. It is a beautiful testimony to Lee’s love for her and the way love can transform a life that she would later go on to spend 50 years of her life co-running the inn, transforming into a talkative and beloved hostess.

Gentle giants, a “Doodlezak,” and a horse in the bar
Walter was known as a gentle giant, but he possessed legendary physical strength. Diane said her father could famously pick up a full six-pack of beer resting on the far end of a broom handle using just one hand.
He was also strict about keeping order in his tavern. Diane said her father would not hesitate to physically remove unruly patrons or those who used inappropriate language. Diane recalled one time when he jumped right over the bar to deal with a man. “He jumped over, grabbed him by the collar and put him against the wall in the bar and said, ‘Okay,’ then walked him right out the door.”

But Walter also loved fun. He famously played a homemade percussion instrument called a “Doodlezak” — a wooden pole with cymbals and bells attached — which he would stamp on the floor to keep the beat to the music coming from the Wurlitzer jukebox.
And over the decades, the tavern saw its share of wild nights. During one western-themed wedding reception that featured hay bales for seating, the party actually brought a real, live, “un-diapered” horse right into the bar. Diane said the horse remarkably took the loud music and rowdy crowd completely in stride.
The inn’s rural location also became a running local joke. Diane said a radio announcer once promoted the tavern by saying, “If you smell cow manure, you are close!”

How a sister’s husband played matchmaker
The love story of Diane and Lee — a love story that sustained Schult’s Country Inn for the last 50 years — was born out of a family tragedy and a feed mill connection. At age 17, Diane married her first husband, Ron Zemp, and the couple had two children. Tragically, Ron died in 1968 when he was electrocuted in an industrial accident, leaving Diane a young widow with two young sons who were only 13 months apart.

Walter had Diane and her boys move into the apartment upstairs and said she could milk cows on the family farm to earn a paycheck.
Meanwhile, Diane’s brother-in-law, Donnie, worked at the local feed mill alongside a quiet young man named Lee Pfaff. When Lee and his girlfriend broke up, Donnie said, “Lee, date my sister-in-law.”
The match was a perfect fit. Lee and Diane married on May 3, 1969. Lee adopted the two boys, Scott and Craig, raising them as his own. The couple later had two more children, Tim and Jamie.
Darlene and Donnie would remain a cornerstone of the business for years, as well, working in the kitchen and hall. Darlene said her late husband, Donnie, was the main cook who was affectionately known as the “soup man” because he made all of his soups entirely from scratch.

Diane and Lee’s 50-year reign

Fifty years ago, Diane and Lee officially took the reins of Schult’s Country Inn because Darlene did not want the burden of ownership, and the couple couldn’t bear to see the family business close.
Under their new management, they finally added indoor plumbing for the men. Previously, there was an indoor restroom for the women, which was heated by a wood furnace. Lee said he had to wake up two or three times on freezing winter nights after closing just to stoke the furnace to keep the pipes from freezing.
But prior to that change, there was a sign above a door on the east side of the building that read “MEN,” and when male patrons opened it, they found themselves standing directly in the wide open outdoors where they could step out to take care of their business.
Lee took over the kitchen prep, waking up at 4:30 a.m. for deliveries and preparing everything from scratch, including the coleslaw, tartar sauce, shrimp sauce, and the tavern’s secret-recipe batter.
Throughout their 50-year run, Diane said the couple took only two or three Friday nights off where one of them wasn’t on site.
The physical and emotional partnership between the two was the true heart of the business. “If it wouldn’t have been for him,” Diane said, “I wouldn’t be who I am today. I was so introverted, and he let me be myself.”
“When I get upset, Lee’s there to say, ‘Honey, take a deep breath, relax,’” she said. “He’s my rock.”
But the partnership isn’t one-sided.
“She’s always been there for me when I’m down and out,” Lee said of Diane. “She’s always on my side.”
After 57 years of marriage, the couple’s secret to a lifetime of love and partnership remains remarkably simple.
“We usually go to bed, kiss each other, and say good night,” Diane said. “You don’t want to go to bed [mad]. If something would happen; you’d never forgive yourself.”

Silent strength and a hero’s healing
For Lee, the hard work of running the bar and restaurant was balanced by a quiet strength forged during his military service. Lee served in the U.S. Army from 1965 to 1967, including a grueling year in Vietnam. Like many other veterans at the time, returning to a divided nation, he experienced a hostile homecoming. “It was terrible. Terrible,” Lee said. He described returning to the U.S. only to be spit upon.
The trauma of the war stayed with him for decades.
“Took me almost three years, I guess,” Lee said, before he could watch a Vietnam movie. And he said he still had to walk away from them sometimes because the memories would rush back.
But in recent years, Lee has begun healing from the trauma, and he’s helping other veterans to heal, as well.
In May 2019, his family convinced him to go on an Honor Flight. That experience has brought him profound healing, Lee said.
Inspired by the overwhelming outpouring of gratitude he received — from complete strangers of all ages — when he went on the Honor Flight, Lee went on to become an active volunteer for the organization, and he is very proud of his role. He joined the Honor Guard to show appreciation to other veterans and wakes up at 3:30 a.m. on Honor Flight days to help load other veterans onto planes.
Lee said a veteran recently recognized him in public, saying to him, “Remember? You put my ass on a plane Monday morning and got my ass off Monday night.”

A heartfelt farewell to Schult’s Country Inn
For Diane and Lee, the decision to close Schult’s Country Inn after 50 years was not easy. But the realities of time and a changing economy told them the time had come.
Lee said he didn’t want to pass the skyrocketing food and fish prices onto his beloved customers. “The way the prices are going nowadays, I mean, they’re really getting out of hand,” he said.
With both Diane and Lee celebrating their 80th birthdays this year, the daily physical toll had grown heavy.
“I want to spend time with him,” Diane said. “We just want to spend time together. We’re 80 years old, and so many of our friends have passed away. We want to spend time together, him and I.”
Rather than sell the historic tavern — which would have required installing a massive sprinkler system, bathroom renovations, and other remodeling to bring the older building up to code — the Pfaffs chose to keep the property in the family.
While the commercial kitchen and the tavern have gone quiet, the building itself will begin a new chapter. The couple’s son, Craig, who lives right next door in the family farmhouse, will inherit the space. Their family’s barn tragically burned down on Thanksgiving three years ago, leaving him in need of storage. Now, the historic hall will serve as storage and be transformed into a family recreation space — ensuring the building remains a gathering place for Diane and Lee’s 12 grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren for many years to come.

A beautiful farewell
The community’s farewell was nothing short of a love letter to Diane and Lee. In the final weeks of business, patrons traveled from miles away to enjoy another Friday-night fish fry at Schult’s Country Inn. Local and distant customers alike purchased commemorative t-shirts, with more than 600 sold, and Diane said she noticed a few pocketing a glass as a keepsake. The tavern and restaurant were filled to capacity with people waiting hours to get a table and enjoy a final fish fry. On one of their final Fridays, the staff served a staggering 454 people, with customers bringing their own lawn chairs just to sit outside and share stories on the warm summer evening after eating.
And that wasn’t even on their final day of business.
“I enjoy cooking, but I enjoy mostly the people,” Darlene Keeser said.
Diane agreed. “The only thing I’ll miss is the wonderful customers and employees,” she said. “We have been so blessed over the years.”
Lee said he is looking forward to retirement, and said he plans to “sit back and relax, take one day at a time,” and focus on his lawn and garden.
For the thousands of patrons who enjoyed Friday nights, fish fries, good drinks, and community at Schult’s Country Inn over the years, the tavern and hall may have gone silent, but the Hinz, Schult, and Pfaff legacy, characterized by a true German sense of “Gemütlichkeit” — warmth, friendliness, and good cheer — speaks volumes and will remain in their hearts forever.