A slice of Augusta history can be found on the corner of Sixth and Ellis Streets where Luanne Hildebrandt has carried on her family’s business for more than 50 years.
Much like George Bailey in “It’s a Wonderful Life,” Hildebrandt had planned a life of adventure leaving Augusta to see the country when things took a different course.
“I came back after living in Oregon. A friend said I think your folks need help. My brother and sister were still in school,” she said. “I thought ‘I’ll straighten them out and then I’ll leave the next year.’”
That year turned into 50 for Hildebrandt, 79, who had spent a couple of years teaching school before returning.
Nicholas Hildebrandt was the uncle of her grandfather, also named Nicholas Hildebrandt. The first Nicholas started the family business in 1879.
He originally settled in Aiken and then moved to Augusta. Initially a grocery store was in a building half the size of the current one which he built in 1896. Like many downtown structures of that time, the main floor housed the business with the second and third floors serving as living quarters.
Horses and stables were behind the house.
Hildebrandt’s grandfather was the third son of a German farmer. As such, he wouldn’t inherit the farm, so he’d have to make his own way in the world. He moved from Germany in 1892. In 1902, he bought the business from his uncle. His uncle and wife had no children, and she wanted to return to Germany.
He and his wife would have eight children including Luanne’s father Louis (pronounced Louie).
Luanne Hildebrandt practically grew up in the store, which has operated as a deli and grocery store over the years, but she never lived in the building. There were two apartments on the second floor and one on the third floor. Family members lived in them at one time, but Hildebrandt only remembers them having her grandmother’s tenants.
“We only got to go upstairs when we delivered groceries up there,” she said.
A fireman and his wife lived in one apartment, and then there was a woman everyone called “Granny.”.
“She liked her half pint of King Cotton peach wine,” she said.
No one has lived in the building for years. The upper levels are primarily storage.
Although she never lived there, the building and business have been part of her working life and family life for decades.
She learned how to use the cash register when she was in the eighth grade.
“My grandmother had surgery,” she said. “I’m left-handed, and they told me you couldn’t do the cash register with your left hand.”
While she might’ve been called on to work at a cash register as a young teen, she remembers good family times at the deli.
“Growing up we’d say ‘can’t we go to the store for Sunday lunch?’ Louis would say ‘I’ve been there six days a week. I don’t want to,’ but he’d relent and he’d come down and make sandwiches for us,” she said.
Not only was it central to their family, but it was a hub in the downtown community as well.
When her grandfather ran the business, it was open from 6 a.m. to midnight. They made deliveries in the community via a bicycle which is the main image in a mural on the Ellis Street side of the building. When Louis Hildebrandt operated it, he’d stay open as long as customers were there.
“On a Saturday night, if people were here at 9 p.m., he would keep it open,” she said.
When Louis Hildebrandt died in 1993, Luanne Hildebrandt knew that it was up to her to keep the family business going.
There have been a lot of faithful customers over the years; people who would stop by on practically a daily basis to get a bite to eat and read the paper. Members of Richmond Academy’s Class of 1956 meet there once a month.
Gone are the days of the grocery store though; Hildebrandt’s is strictly a restaurant open for lunch.
“We still have some people who come every week for lunch,” she said.
And the lunch menu features favorites and newer sandwiches.
The bestseller is the classic Reuben with corned beef, Swiss, sauerkraut, and Thousand Island dressing on toasted rye bread., she said; a second favorite is a turkey version of the Reuben called the Rachel.
Several sandwiches are named after her dad including the Sweet Heat Louis which features pastrami, Cajun Turkey, Buffalo chicken, capicola, provolone and pepper jack with DiChicko’s Sweet Heat sauce on panini’d artisan bread and the German Louis with braunschweiger, yachtwurst, hard salami, zungenwurst, muenster and Swiss with mayo and spicy mustard on pumpernickel bread.
There’s also a sandwich called Lu’s pick which has turkey, roast beef, ham, hard salami, provolone and cheddar with mayo and spicy mustard on rye bread.
“It’s Lu’s pick now, but it was the King Louis or Special Louis. Dad would pick whatever he’d want,” she said.
More than 50 years after thinking she’d stay only a year, Hildebrandt doesn’t put a date on retirement. She tried that one once too.
“I said I was going to retire. I said I’d give them five more years,” she said. “It’s been three years past that. As long as I’m able, I’m happy to.”
Charmain Z. Brackett, the publisher of Augusta Good News and Inspiring: Women of Augusta, has covered Augusta’s news for more than 35 years. She’s won multiple Georgia Press Association awards, is the recipient of the 2018 Greater Augusta Arts Council’s media award and was named Augusta Magazine’s best local writer in 2024 and 2025. Reach her at charmain@augustagoodnews.com. Sign up for the newsletter here.
