After 35 years in business, Hap’s is still a happening place
There’s no stopping Hap and his Hungry House.
Harold (Hap) Myers, 70, has fought off numerous challenges in business, including competition from giant breakfast fastfood multinationals, to become an Edmonton restaurant icon.
On Stony Plain Road, Hap’s Hungry House has been in business for 35 years. Hap has no plans to retire.
“I like to be busy and we’ve worked at our business, and it’s a modest business, but it’s a success,” he says. “So I enjoy coming to work ... I’m not tired of doing it and I’m fortunate to have good health. I’m still high energy. Not like I used to be, but pretty good.”
What’s Hap’s recipe for success?
For starters, good-to-great food in generous portions. On Trip Advisor, 85 per cent of 74 reviews give Hap’s a “Very Good” or “Excellent” score.
There’s also refreshing team work, good spirit and efficiency at Hap’s, one that flows from his years playing pro hockey and coaching his four boys in minor hockey and soccer.
Hap grew up the son of a construction business owner in Lloydminster, but hockey was his passion. He played on the Edmonton Oil Kings dynasty of the 1960s. It was then that Hap got his nickname. He wasn’t keen on his given name.
“They made the nickname ‘Hap’ for me. I could have kissed all my teammates.”
How crucial has the name “Hap” been to the restaurant’s success?
“I think it has been because it’s a catchy name,” Hap’s wife, Mary, says.
Hap played six years of minor pro hockey in Fort Worth, Cleveland, Salt Lake City and Cincinnati, as well as 13 games in the NHL with Gilbert Perreault’s Buffalo Sabres in 1970-71.
Afterward, he returned to Edmonton and started a real estate business. He did well through the 1970s. He invested in a burger joint on Stony Plain Road, thinking he’d been an absentee owner. But the restaurant needed a lot of help right away and, soon enough, the Edmonton real estate market crashed. “The crap hit the fan so I wasn’t able to progress with any real estate that would generate income and I had a family and I had to support them.”
Hap decided to become the restaurant’s manager. He was no cook and didn’t know much about the restaurant business. He worked the front end, greeting and seating customers, or pitching in on the tables when things got busy.
He made all kinds of mistakes at first, he says, such as offering eight kinds of french fries, which was great for customers, but not so easy for his kitchen staff to crank out.
“I was naive and I had a lot to learn. But gradually I learned.”
From all his years playing hockey, he’d travelled a lot and been to many restaurants. This gave him a number of ideas about how to provide proper service, such as bringing every guest a glass of water, something common in the U.S. then, but not so much in Edmonton.
He also always liked all-day breakfast, so that’s the route Hap’s took. He kept prices low, but tried to keep food quality high. The focus has always been on fresh and home-made. Hap’s has three homemade soups every day, makes its own hamburgers and makes a clubhouse sandwich from a turkey they cook.
Soon, a huge network of regular customers developed. “We all need to eat and we all like a good deal, and that brought them in,” Hap says.
One customer told Hap that watching him and his staff seat and serve large numbers of people was like poetry in motion. Each host or hostess pitches in to get a table ready, one of them clearing, another wiping the table, another putting out cutlery, another seating a new group.
“This is what we call ‘the cycle,’” Hap says. “It’s really, really satisfying. It’s like a hockey team. You’ve got systems, and people are co-operating and things are going smoothly.”
There was a scary moment a few years back when a Tim Hortons opened up kitty corner. Could Hap’s compete?
“We were a little bit apprehensive, but we concluded that we were different,” Hap says. “We’re full service. We’re a sit-down place where you get a plate of food that’s different than what they’re able to offer their customers. And I think we’ve benefited from them being here.”
I ask Hap what makes him happy as a restaurateur.
“When you see customers come through the door when you’re in business, you’re happy.”