Opportunity Knocks Twice; Chapter 16

Editor's Note: Utah Pulse is serializing the book, 'Opportunity Knocks Twice,' by Don Hale, as told to Mark Hale. We'll publish two chapters a week. You'll enjoy the wit and wisdom of one of Utah's great entrepreneurs, founder of Hires Big H. To buy the book, click here.

Chapter Sixteen
Hires Big H

Often times, past experiences help with present situations. In the 1970s, I looked back to the past for inspiration to assist me with Hires Drive-In. My mom made a great tasting burger sauce—a pink sauce she put on hamburgers, salads, and other foods. I decided to recreate for the restaurant what my mom had created for our family dinner table. I came up with a cheese burger garnished with fresh lettuce, sliced tomato, and pink hamburger sauce. I called it the Big H, and it has become our most popular burger.
Customers liked the pink sauce on burgers so much that we eventually began offering it as a dipping sauce for our fresh-cut french fries and home-made onion rings. Little did I know that fry sauce would become a Utah phenomenon, so much so, that one of the commemorative pins created for the 2002 Winter Olympics, held in Salt Lake City, featured a couple of french fries in a small cup of pink fry sauce.
As people began identifying the drive-in with the Big H, we eventually added the name Big H to Hires and now call the restaurant Hires Big H. Because of the popularity of Hires’ signature sandwich—the Big H—we developed an entire line of Big H burgers: Country H, Canadian H, Western H, Pastrami H, Roquefort Bacon H, New York H, Mountain H, Golden H, Veggie H, New York Veggie H,
Mountain Veggie H, and Golden Veggie H.
Many customers ask me what the H stands for—Hamburger, Hires, Hale? Well, I do not know. Let us just say one of those
Many customers ask to purchase our sauces and flavorings, so we have developed our own line of Big H products. We bottle the pink sauce as Hires Big H Famous Hamburger and Fry Sauce, selling it in our restaurants, in select grocery stores in the Intermountain West, and on-line. We also bottle and sell our own cherry and vanilla flavorings—delicious additions to soft drinks and shakes. And, naturally, we bottle root beet extract under the Big H label for making tasty homemade root beer activated by dry ice.

I have said that opportunity knocks twice; interestingly, the more you seize opportunity, the more it knocks.

Answering opportunity creates future opportunity.

When we started Hires it was not very busy. Now, after 46 years of business, it is generally always busy. Many have said that Hires Big H is a Salt Lake City institution, a Utah icon. We are serving probably our fifth generation of families and friends. Many Hires patrons who live outside Utah say that whether they fly or drive to Salt Lake City, Hires Big H is their first stop once in town and their last stop before leaving town. Others have said that if they stay in town for a week they have to eat at Hires at least two or three times while here. Still others have said that if they have a three-hour layover in Salt Lake, they try to arrange a meal at Hires Big H during the layover.
Hires Big H has become a gathering place for family and friends before or after football and basketball games; a place to gather when family and friends visit at Christmastime or during summer vacations; a place for business meetings; a place for social get-togethers; a place for high school and college dates. You are bound to see everything from business suits to tennis outfits, and from blue jeans to prom dresses at Hires Big H. During the 46 years I have been watching over my business, I have seen moms and dads bring their kids—dressed in pajamas—to the car hop for a bedtime snack or treat. It seemed to me that the kids loved these outings, and when they grew up and started dating, they took their dates to Hires. They eventually married, had children of their own, and now continue the tradition. Often, three generations will meet together at Hires Big H for lunch or dinner. As has often been noted,

Word of mouth is the best form of advertising.

Nationally prominent folks have lunched or dined at Hires Big H, including Bob Hope, Danny Kaye, Johnny Miller, Marvin Hamlish, Jay Leno, John Stockton, Karl Malone, David Blume, John Hurt, Robert Redford, Mitt Romney, Jon Huntsman Sr., Larry H. Miller, and Roger O’Neill.
Nationally prominent magazines and newspapers have written about Hires Big H.
Gourmet magazine wrote:

Better to head for Hires Big H Drive-in downtown, where actual carhops will take your order once you turn on your headlights. The Big H Burgers are fresh-ground, the buns the real item, the onion rings (served with another local wrinkle: ‘fry sauce,’ an amalgam of mayonnaise, ketchup and who-knows-what secret ingredients) a credit to the genre. Go native by ordering a Salt Lake favorite, the pastrami burger, an outrageous concept in which layers of cured meat add a salty, peppery je ne sais quoi to your basic hamburger patty. Finish with that classic Mormon cocktail, the frosty root beer float. Who cares if it’s winter? Utahns’ love affair with ice cream thrives year-round. (Copyright © 2002 CondJ? Nast Publications. All rights reserved. Originally published in Gourmet, January 2002, “Let the Games Begin,” by Alison Cook. Reprinted by permission.)
And The Wall Street Journal wrote:
This drive-thru, with four outlets in Salt Lake City, offers burgers as well as root beer in five sizes (plus root-beer floats). Its burgers include the ‘New York H’ with grilled onions and the ‘Big H,’ which comes with lettuce, tomato, special sauce and cheese. French fries come with dipping sauce, chili or melted cheese. (The Wall Street Journal [Western addition] September 14, 2001, “The Way We Eat Now Drive-Thru Classics,” Robert J. Hughes. Copyright 2001 by Dow Jones & Co. Inc. Reproduced with permission of Dow Jones & Co. Inc.)
Perhaps my favorite was written by Gene Minshall, a Salt Lake media producer and consultant, as a radio spot broadcast in the Salt Lake City area in 1986:

An institution in Salt Lake City which is not only a great place to eat but is also a great equalizer is Hires Drive-In on Fourth South and Seventh East. It is living proof of the proposition that the world will beat a path to your door if your mouse trap has better cheese in it. To my knowledge it is the only drive-in left in town with flesh and blood car hops. Expansion has increased the seating capacity inside but many still prefer eating in their car. The decor inside and out is early functional. Everything is geared to getting you in and out . . . but no one will hurry you along. Part of the charm is who you’ll see at Hires. Go there enough times and you’ll see everyone you’ve ever known. There is no class distinction at Hires. Jaguars park next to jalopies. Ladies in high fashion and feathers sit next to construction workers in hard hats and dirty shirts. In the end they come for one reason, the food. It is consistently a quality product. The staple diet is the Big H, which is more than a burger. It is confirmation of the good life. Hires cranks out 900 Big H’s a day . . . and the accompanying french fries are the best in town. No factory assembly line fries here – these babies are the result of the human touch . . . hand cut and nurtured. A burger without homemade fries at Hires is like a face without a smile. And the food is served by car hops and waitresses who treat you cordially and efficiently. A few have been there since Lassie was a pup. All are there every day in
all kinds of weather. In a winter’s storm they are angels of mercy in a city deep in snow, slush and short tempers. Now over 25 years old Hires is a port in a storm, refuge for the hungry, a fail safe in a world of junk food. Even the birds feel safe at Hires. They’ll come within inches of plucking one of those french fries from your fingers. The mayor is a regular at Hires. Utah’s congressional delegation, bank presidents, secretaries and teachers all rub shoulders at Hires. Robert Redford is no stranger. Even Danny Kaye and dozens of other celebrities have given it a shot. If Ray Kroc had stopped at Hires before he ran into a couple of brothers in Southern California by the name of MacDonald . . . the country would be knee deep in Big H’s instead of Big Macs. (Gene Minshall, radio spot, 1986)

Hopefully, Hires Big H will continue to be the gathering place for tasty food and cheerful service for friends and family from all walks of life—a place where you will always feel welcome.