TOWER GROVE SOUTH – When you discuss “seeing how they make the sausage” at G&W Sausage Co. in the Tower Grove South neighborhood, it’s not a wisecrack. It’s something they take pride in.

The south city shop opened as G&W in 1965. Current co-owners, cousins Gerhard and Bob Wanninger, took over for their fathers, who brought the recipe from Bavaria.
“What happened is my dad moved from Germany,” Gerhard Wanninger said. “Right before he turned 19 he moved over here, and he started working at Kerim and company. And that’s where he met the G, the Gummerscheimer, and they always talked about opening their own business.”

“Our dads added on, and we’ve added on since,” Wanninger said. “The growth was over years of a lot of word-of-mouth advertising. When I started here there were only seven or eight of us. Now we’ve got as many as twenty employees.”
Another thing that would seem easy to add around here is pounds.
“It’s hard to track,” the sausage maker said of his product consumption. “It’s easy to nibble here, nibble

Although the customer list has its corporate side, this is still very much a neighborhood spot. The shop at 4828 Parker Ave. comes complete with the offer of an ice-cold beer to anyone (of age) who walks in the door.
“People enjoy the free beer,” Wanninger said. “It’s something my dad started. Customers love it. Just to get to know all the customers over the years.
“They’ve been coming in for years, and they’ve seen us grow, but outside, if I’m wearing G&W gear anywhere I go, people will come up to me. So, it’s kind of neat; no matter where I go I get it all the time.”