Al Johnson's Swedish Restaurant is a family-owned restaurant in Sister Bay, Wisconsin, known for its Swedish cuisine as well as for the goats that graze on the rooftop in the summer. The gimmick is unique to this restaurant, which is the only American establishment allowed to use rooftop goats in its marketing under copyright law.[1]
Axel Albert (Al) Johnson, the owner, grew up in Chicago and spent his childhood summers with family in Sweden, where he became fluent in Swedish and interested in Swedish culture. When he was older, he spent time working on a friend's strawberry farm in Door County, Wisconsin, and he moved there after returning home from World War II, where he was a paratrooper in the 101st Airborne. He became a short-order cook at Johnny's Cottage Restaurant in Sister Bay.
In 1949, Johnson bought a building across the street that had been Hanson's IGA grocery store and opened a restaurant that he called Al's Home Cooking, now called Al Johnson's Swedish Restaurant & Butik.[2]
On a 1973 trip to Norway with his wife Ingert Maria Forsber, he commissioned a log structure to be built in Norway, taken apart, shipped across the Atlantic Ocean, and reconstructed in Wisconsin by Norwegian carpenters, who added a sod roof. This new structure replaced the old restaurant. Ingert, who grew up in Österbymo, Sweden, redid the interior to resemble a traditional Scandinavian design. Ingert added a gift store called Al's Butik for restaurant patrons to shop while waiting for a table to dine. The shop features items with Nordic history.
After the renovation was complete, Johnson's friend Harold 'Winkie' Larson gave him a goat named Oscar and put the goat on the roof of the restaurant as a joke. This caught the attention of pedestrians and inspired Al to obtain additional goats to put on the roof as a marketing gimmick.
In 1996, the Johnsons registered the "Goats on the Roof" trademark with the United States Patent and Trademark Office, meaning that other competing restaurants in the United States may not have goats on their roofs in their marketing materials. As a result, Tiger Mountain Market pays Al Johnson's Swedish Restaurant a fee for the right to promote the roof goats at its locations in Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Tennessee.[1] In Canada, the Johnsons trademark does not apply, and the Old Country Market in Coombs, British Columbia, has had goats on its Norwegian-style rooftop since the 1970s.[3]
Al Johnson died in June 2010.[2] Today, three of Johnson's children as well as several grandchildren are involved in the business, which includes the restaurant, the Butik gift shop, the Skål retail store, and the Stabbur beer garden.[4]
The restaurant has two cameras that overlook the roof, allowing people to watch the goats at any hour of the day from spring to October.[5] The goats are removed from the roof at night and when weather reaches a high of 80 degrees.[6] Once the goats' work day is over they are taken to a farm just out of the city center of Sister Bay. The little farm is run by one of Al Johnson's sons and his wife.