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History of Queen City Sausage

The proud history of Queen City Sausage is directly linked to Cincinnati’s long history of meat packing and sausage making. For over 100 years, the city’s historic West End was known as “Porkopolis” with over 40 separate shops producing the nation’s finest meat products. Old World recipes and traditions were handed down from generation to generation in this meat-packing center that dates back to 1810.

Today, all those shops are gone except one: Queen City Sausage. Indeed, Queen City Sausage is the only locally-owned and operated sausage producer in Cincinnati, something our founder and president, Elmer Hensler, takes great pride in. Born in the West End in 1930 as one of nine children, Elmer has been working in the meat products business since he was 12. Today at 79, Elmer still comes to work every day at our West End plant to ensure that Queen City Sausage continues the Porkopolis tradition of producing the world’s finest sausages, lunch meat and hams.

After working for more than 20 years learning every aspect of the business, Elmer founded Queen City Sausage in 1965 with Alvis Stadler, a young German who had the reputation of being the best “spice” man in Porkopolis. Soon, George Nagel, a renowned Yugoslavian master sausage maker, joined them. Together, the threesome took no quality shortcuts and earned a reputation for making the city’s best sausages using authentic German-descent recipes.

Today, the same pride, uncompromising commitment to quality and hands on attention to detail are evident in every Queen City Sausage product. We hand mix our spices and use only lean cuts of the finest beef and pork in our original recipes—we use no poultry or other fillers and never will. Despite expanding 10 times to keep pace with demand, we continue to buy only fresh meat (never frozen) to make our products, and we only make enough to fill weekly orders to ensure that our customers receive only the freshest possible meats.

While we may not be the biggest sausage maker, we are confident we are the best. And, Elmer wants you to know that if you’re not satisfied with a Queen City Sausage product you purchased, give him a call and he’ll gladly refund your money. When was the last time one of the big national brands extended you an offer like that?

“You’ve Tried the Rest, Now Try the Best: Queen City Sausage”