Hug-Hes Cafe: 34 Years And Still Growing

Fans of the Hug-Hes Cafés in Weber and Davis counties might be surprised to find out that Hug-Hes now has a location in Stansbury Park (Tooele County), opened in November 2021.

  And Tooele residents might be equally surprised to find out that Hug-Hes is a brand that’s been in business 34 years with other locations in South Ogden, Syracuse, North Ogden, Centerville, and a smaller Hugs in Layton.

  “When we moved out to Stansbury, most people out there didn’t have a clue that we’ve been open for 34 years,” said founder Blake Hawkins. “They said, ‘Hug-Hes,’ what’s that?”

  In an interview for the Standard-Examiner, Hug-Hes founder Blake Hawkins shared with me the story behind the unusual name, the signature dishes, success secrets and restaurant trends.

1. The Name. It’s not pronounced “Huggies,” or “Hughes,” but “Hugg-Hess.”

  It’s an inside joke on Kathryn Hughes Hawkins’ maiden name. When her father worked for the FBI in Washington, D.C., many Easterners mis-pronounced his last name as “Hugg-Hess,” instead of “Hughes,” with a silent G. That became a nickname that stuck.

“When we were thinking of a name, it floated to the top,” Hawkins said. “It ended up working pretty well, because people were always curious about it.”

2. Saved by a salad! Six months after Hawkins opened Hug-Hes in South Ogden in 1988, he worried that the restaurant would go under.

 Having left his job managing the prestigious Market Street Broiler in Salt Lake City, he was now wondering, “Why did I do this?”

  But the pasta trend, already big on the East and West coasts, had caught on in Utah. Spaghetti and mac’n’cheese had been around for years. But in the ‘80s, the term, “pasta” was trendy, with dishes like pasta primavera, angel hair pasta, fettuccine Alfredo, and pasta salads.

  “When we first opened, Utah was still a meat-and-potatoes culture,” Hawkins said. “But pasta was becoming more popular, so I began playing with it. Our Smoked Chicken Pasta Salad became our signature item, and possibly the item that saved us.”

  The recipe hasn’t changed — diced smoked chicken, rotini and bow-tie pastas, chopped carrots and broccoli, and kidney beans, tossed in a sweet vinaigrette dressing.

   “It became a big part of our catering, it’s used for weddings and all different kinds of functions,” Hawkins said. 

  Today, the salad is still a signature item at all the Hug-Hes locations. Many patrons buy bottles of the sweet vinaigrette to take home.

3. A Salad Reputation. Over the years, Hug-hes Café built on their salad reputation, making it popular with the “ladies who lunch” groups. The menu offers about 10 different kinds of salads, including the popular Summer Salad with strawberries, diced apples, craisins, feta, almonds, red onion and grilled chicken. There’s also a Shrimp & Avocado Salad, a Prime Rib Salad, Pan-Seared Salmon Salad, a Café Cobb, and a Southwest BBQ Chicken Salad, to name a few more.

4.  Beer bread, with its subtle yeast-y, malt-y flavor, is another long-time signature item.

“That came on the menu about four or five months after we opened,” Hawkins said. “We started out serving sourdough bread, but I wanted to be different,” he said.

  Over the years, he’s seen some raised eyebrows while catering at ward dinners for Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, since alcoholic beverages are prohibited in the Church’s Word of Wisdom. Hawkins noted that any alcohol evaporates during baking, so concerned church members should rest easy.

  “But a lot of times, we just call it Hug-Hes Bread,” he said. 

5. Bouncer-turned restaurateur. He graduated in business administration from BYU. But as a student, Hawkins became a bouncer at the JB’s Big Boy in Provo. He was dating a server at the restaurant, and took the job of keeping the rowdy late-night customers in line so he could see more of her. It apparently worked, as he married that server, Kathryn Hughes, whose last name later sparked Hug-Hes’ quirky name.

    After graduating in business administration, he managed a JB’s, then truck stops, and became manager of Gastronomy, Inc.’s Market Street Broiler near the U campus.

  “Gastronomy is where I really learned about food at a higher level, especially fish,” Hawkins said. “But with my personality, I decided the corporate structure isn’t for me. I have a hard time with my success depending on other people, and I wanted to do my own thing.”

  He also wanted the flexibility to to attend family events and support his children’s sports activities.

   He spent about a year-and-a-half in planning to go out on his own, which included acquiring used kitchen equipment on a budget.

   “When we opened, I had one piece of new equipment,” he said.

6. Location, location, location. Hug-Hes originally opened in a strip mall on the west side of Harrison Blvd., and later moved to 1220 E. 4800 South.

   ““We moved to this location because it had been a bank, and we wanted to have a drive through. At our old location, we were doing a bit of takeout but the parking was horrible and it wasn’t convenient. Moving here was an eye-opener, because I didn’t realize how bad that location was. Now all our locations have good parking. And when Covid hit, it was even more important to have a drive-through.”

  The new restaurant in Stansbury has a drive-through.

7. Expansion. For years, Hug-Hes was a one-location cafe, until Hawkins’ son, Jordan, came home from his church mission and wanted to work in the business. He and longtime employee Nathan Richey were involved in opening a second Hug-Hes in Syracuse in 2014, followed by a North Ogden location at 505 E. 2600 North and an express, limited-menu eatery on Layton’s Main Street called “Hugs.” A Centerville Hug-Hes opened four years ago, and last November, a location opened in Stansbury Park.

  Opening multiple locations is harder than people think, Hawkins said, “Especially if you are a relatively small company. You can’t just hire a bunch of people and open your doors.  We spend three to four months training new people, so when we open the doors, people get the experience they expect.”

  He added, “In this business, you’ve got one shot. If it’s not a good experience, they won’t come back and will talk about the negative. It’s the nature of our industry.”

 8. The best performing restaurant is still the South Ogden location, “Because people know we’re here.” North Ogden does really well too, he said.

  The Centerville restaurant, “gives us an opportunity to do more catering in the Salt Lake area,” Hawkins said. “It’s easier to come from our Centerville location to Salt Lake.”

  And how did they end up in Stansbury?

  “I was approached by the people who own the building out there,” Hawkins said. “It was in the middle of Covid, and I wasn’t looking, but I thought what the heck, I will look at it. I checked on the economics, and the income levels of the communities out there, and it’s a growing area. We negotiated a good deal with them.”

  There are now about 250 employees spread among all the Hug-Hes restaurants, he said.

9. The Menu. “I took some ideas from the different places I’ve worked, significantly Gastronomy,” Hawkins said. My menu back then was one-fourth as big as what it is now.  I added to it throughout the years.”

  Often an item would run as a special, and if it turned out to be popular, it would get added to t the regular menu.

  Also, they try to have a variety, for instance, a meatless burger and faux chicken that are vegetable-based.

  “They aren’t ordered in huge amounts, but we want to take care of as many people as possible.”

  Hug-Hes is one of the few places that still serves the old-school Liver & Onions, although it’s not listed on the regular menu these days.

  “It hasn’t been the greatest of sellers. Jordan and Nathan wanted to get rid of it, but there are people my age who still come in for it,” Hawkins said. “We finally took it off last year, and now we run it as a special. You can get it every day, you just have to ask for it.”

10. Sweets and Sips. Hug-Hes’ sugar cookies have won Best of State for three times. During the Valentine’s week last year, the restaurants sold 11,000 of them. Also, non-alcoholic drinks such as Lime Rickeys, and cream sodas, are served. as well as beer and wine.

11. Changing trends. Although more restaurants are going to a fast casual format, “So far. sit-down service is still working for us.”

  But they do have Hugs in Layton —a smaller, limited menu version with counter ordering, and a drive-through window.

  “Millennials – generally speaking, aren’t into full service,” Hawkins noted. “They eat out more. They have the attitude, of ‘Let’s just go hang out.’ ” But the older generation wants to sit down and be waited on and have more of an experience.”

 Another trend — “People are eating dinner earlier,” he noted. “Years ago, people didn’t go out to dinner until after 6:30 or 7 p.m Now dinner starts at 5 p.m., and not very many restaurants stay open past 9 p.m.”

12. Today’s challenges.   At age 70, Hawkins has left running the day-to-day operations to son Jordan, Nate Richey, and a separate catering manager. But he’s still involved in decisions affecting the restaurants.

The Covid pandemic destroyed Hug-Hes’ catering business, when nearly all events, parties, weddings, dinners, etc. were halted. While rebuilding the catering business, the company is coping with supply chain issues and skyrocketing prices.

  “If you can get the product, it’s two or three times higher in price,” Hawkins said. “Our chicken we used to buy for $55 a case now is $129 a case.”

  Halibut was taken off the menu because it became too expensive.  “I would have to charge $35-40 a meal, and it wouldn’t fit with our price range. I didn’t feel I could sell enough of it to make sure it was fresh.”

  Although salmon has also gone up in price, “It’s still reasonable.” So the popular pan-seared salmon is still on the menu.

   13. The industry. “We have more failures in this industry than anything else,” said Hawkins. “Someone might be a good cook, but that’s cooking for six people versus cooking for 20 to 100 people at the same time. That’s where they fail.”