STUDIO CITY, Calif. – The chairs are empty and wrapped in plastic, but Bill Kohne knows it is just temporary.
What You Need To Know
- Hugo's launched "Pay What You Can" program on kids menu
- Program runs through the remainder of the school year
- Restaurant is celebrating 40th anniversary in June
- Offering pantry boxes with fresh produce, wine, coffee, beans and other staples
“I know that the time will come when we get to unwrap and invite people back into our house," Kohne said.
Kohne is the owner and CEO of Hugo’s restaurants. He didn’t start the business, but he does try to follow the principles of the man who did.
“Love is our true power and it was truly what he believed," Kohne said of Terry Kaplan. "That if you put a community of people together, good things would come.”
The restaurant has always welcomed families. So when COVID-19 forced schools to close their doors, Kohne knew the families they serve would be struggling. They decided on the spot, he says, to make their kid's menu “pay what you can.”
“If you can pay for your meal, great," Kohne said. "But if you need the extra hand, if you need the help right now, we will serve any kid who is effected by the school closure for free or for whatever they can pay.”
The registers don’t track these meals so he isn’t sure how many he has given away. But his staff has told him what they have seen.
“It’s a real mix of people that are coming in and taking us up on the offer and a lot of other people that are coming in and paying a little extra just to pay it forward," Kohne said. "It’s been a real positive experience for everybody.”
The pantry boxes are another change they created in the wake of the pandemic, when they heard one of their long time produce vendors was about to go under.
“So it began as a response to try and help somebody else stay in business as well as help our employees out who had no work," Kohne said.
It’s also helped generate some income for the restaurant but more importantly, he says, it has generated energy.
“It sounds odd but having people walk in is an energy that keeps people sustained in a time when otherwise you’re just asking a lot of questions and you don’t have a lot of great answers," Kohne said.
It has been such a positive experience he says that even when they eventually reopen, the pantry will continue. June marks the restaurant’s 40th anniversary. It won’t be the party he had been planning, but Kohne says they will celebrate and one way or another, they will survive.
“Essentially people are good," Kohne said, "and if you are putting one foot in front of the other and doing your best each and every day, somehow things will turn out and that’s what we’re counting on.”
The house recipe they have relied on since day one.