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Date: 9/19/2023
HOLYOKE — Tuesday, Sept. 12 was a sunny day in the ‘Yoke but something was different as the smell of fried onions over burgers and hot dogs could be detected through the air thanks to the opening of a new White Hut location.
The newest location of the famous burger joint opened at 825 Hampden St. to a packed crowd of hungry community leaders and residents. The new location will share the exact same menu and classic meals as the West Springfield location.
Around since 1939 in its West Springfield location, White Hut’s newest location was thanks to the Bean Restaurant Group and the Yee family, and their business partners in expanding the restaurant to a new community. The ribbon cutting opening saw members all across the Holyoke community, Holyoke Mayor Joshua Garcia, and members of the City Council on site to celebrate the newest addition to Holyoke.
“We want to give you an official welcome here in the city of Holyoke. It’s been creating quite the buzz in our community for a very long time, and it just finally feels good to be here at this moment and celebrating with you all on this 150th year of Holyoke’s celebration as a municipality, and we’re very proud of you and I’m just so excited,” Garcia said during the ceremony.
Earlier this year White Hut gained national recognition as Thrillist named it one of the best burgers in America, calling it a “top-notch American burger spot.”
Thrillist is an online media website covering food, drink, travel and entertainment. A national accolade added to what was already a treasure in the region.
Instead of a formal ribbon to cut in opening the new location, a hot dog link “ribbon” was held by Garcia and cut by Bean Restaurant Group principal managing partner Nick Yee. The hot dog linked “ribbon” paid homage to White Hut’s famous hot dogs.
City Council President Todd McGee said when the Bean Restaurant Group first approached the city with the idea for the new location his only response was, “when can you start?” He added Holyoke is open to everyone and was looking forward to all the residents and visitors of the city who are able to stop in and grab a bite to eat.
The new location will be serving the same classic White Hut menu and recipes that were made famous in West Springfield. A new feature to the Holyoke location will be a kiosk system that allows customers to “Skip the Line [&] Order Here,” an option to order digitally instead of going to the register. They will also offer a pick-up option where employees will bring orders right to a car in the parking lot.
“It’ll be made fresh for you exactly how you want it. You can watch it being made, it’ll be served to you within four minutes,” said business partner of the new White Hut Peter Picknelly. “We’re excited about being in Holyoke. We selected Holyoke for a number of reasons, but in particular because of this administration, their pro-business attitude and the warm reception we got.”
Adding a little charm to their new Holyoke location, the famous White Hut’s West Side Special breakfast sandwich — a scrambled egg with sausage, hash brown, American cheese and fried onion on a Venetian water roll — is now dubbed “the Paper City Special.”
Breakfast will be from 6:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. during weekdays and from 8 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. on weekends. Lunch and dinner are served daily from 10:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.
The addition of the famously known restaurant and new business to Holyoke continued the trend of city efforts to grow economically.
“Holyoke’s pro-business, that’s the new word on the street,” Garcia said during the ceremony.