COLUMBUS — Dusters, a downtown restaurant in Columbus, occupies the former home of the Gottberg Auto, a car refurbishment and sales company dating to the 1800s.
For many years, the building sat unused until Mac Hull, famous for purchasing the recipe to Dorothy Lynch salad dressing and turning it into a business, bought it in hopes of keeping the building from being demolished.
“He didn’t want to see it torn down, so he bought it and sat on it for a very long time,†said current owner Marilea Hull, Hull’s daughter, who noted how his plans sometimes were in conflict with city leaders.
Mac Hull made it into a restaurant that opened in 1995, naming it Dusters after the coats people would wear when driving in the early days of cars. Honoring the former use of the building, Marilea Hull said, was important to her father. Motifs of Gottberg Auto can be seen throughout the restaurant, which includes a large mural in the dining room featuring a car on the prairie.
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Marilea Hull, who previously worked for Motorola and in corporate accounting, said her work prepared her to take over Dorothy Lynch and Dusters when her father decided to slow down in 2021. Mac Hull died on July 2.
“People will always come up and give me suggestions and I try to take to heart what makes sense, but the little things are what people notice,†Marilea Hull said.
New chairs, fixed-up banquet spaces and general updates to some things have made the restaurant a little more modern. To match that, Hull and kitchen manager Matt Marksmeier have been reevaluating the menu to see what could use a breath of fresh air and what classics they can’t change.
“For instance, instead of regular burgers, we wanted to do gourmet, add bacon, add cheese,†Hull said.
She also gets feedback from customers about what not to remove.
“’Don’t get rid of the jalopy wings. Don’t get rid of the lahvosh,’†Hull said, repeating some of the more frequent requests. “We’re doing a big analysis on what sells so we don’t get rid of favorites, but make the menu smaller.â€
Marksmeier said that, in his 16 years at Dusters, many things have come and gone from the menu and he and the kitchen staff are always working to try something new. Potentially, he’d like to see more collaboration with the restaurant’s brewery, Gottberg Brew Pub.
“I want to start bringing beer meals back, small sociable events where we can push our creativity with our foods and our beers,†Marksmeier said.
Marksmeier, who formerly worked with the brewing operation, said burgers are one of the things he wants to focus on, making them more appealing because diners eat with their eyes first.
Hull said that while she does have other changes in mind, they will take some time as she figures out the best way to do them efficiently and in a way that doesn’t change Dusters’ identity.
“It’s fun because there’s a lot of potential,†Hull said.