White Hut gets cooking again with new ownership

Date: 8/25/2020

WEST SPRINGFIELD – The reopening of White Hut may prove that you can go home again.

Peter Picknelly, the co-owner of White Hut, was adamant. The building has been cleaned up and modernized. There is a new handicap entrance. A new point of sale system and a new digital menu board were installed as well.

The food, though, remains the same.

“It’s the same meat from the same purveyor,” Picknelly told Reminder Publishing. “It’s the same condiments.” The same bread products as well. None of the recipes have been altered, he added.

The grill top, seasoned over decades, was not replaced.

The cost of the renovations was $400,000, he added.

The menu is still focused on breakfasts, hamburgers with or without cheese and the restaurant’s famous fried onions and hot dogs.

The iconic restaurant on Memorial Avenue was officially opened on Aug. 21 with a hot dog cutting ceremony – a long string of hot dogs was severed by Congressman Richard Neal and other dignitaries.

Picknelly said father brought him to White Hut many times as a child and as an adult. “I used to come here with my dad all the time,” he said. “He usually made me pay,” he added with a laugh.

Picknelly has brought his children over as well.

A number of the employees including manager Art White were re-hired. White, Picknelly noted, has been at the restaurant more than 40 years.

Picknelly said once he learned White Hut had closed earlier this year, he called Andy Yee, his partner with The Student Prince.

“Within five minutes, we decided to buy the place,” he said. After talking to the owner, he had a basis for a deal within an hour.

Mayor Will Reichelt said he was happy, especially after the departure of two other restaurants on Memorial Avenue, to see White Hut survive.

“It’s great to see such a rebirth,” he said.

Inside the restaurant, the opening-day audience was crowding at the counter giving the busy staff their orders.

Neal said when you’re speaking about White Hut, “you’re talking about Americana.”

Noting that he had spent considerable time at the restaurant. “I’ve gotten an awful lot of advice here as well as a lot of good food,” Neal said.

Yee said, “You can’t let another landmark go.”