On the Road

BRICELYN — Bud’s Cafe in Bricelyn has been dishing up local favorites for more than 70 years now.

“It’s been in my family since the late 1930s,” said Tom Hughes, the restaurant’s owner and manager.

According to Tom, his dad, Bud, originally opened the town’s only daytime restaurant with Tom’s uncle. After Tom’s uncle moved to North Dakota, Bud ran the business until he passed away in 1965.

Tom said his mother, Iva, then ran the business until her passing in 1984.

Tom took over the family business in 1985, and the rest is history.

“I helped when I was growing up,” said Hughes.

However, he really had no intentions during his boyhood of taking over the family business.

“I was out of college and not really employed, up in Cities looking for a job when everything happened,” he said. “I have one brother and I agreed to take it over and try it.”

Twenty-five years later, he’s still there, and he wouldn’t have it any other way.

“I guess I’m kind of lucky,” he said. “When I go to bed at night, I get up and look forward to going to work. There’s not much that I really don’t like.”

Hughes’ day in the cafe begins every morning at about 5 a.m., when he gets the coffee going and the homemade cinnamon rolls — Iva’s family recipe from scratch — in the oven.

“I make that dough ahead of time and just take it out of cooler in morning and roll it out,” he said.

At 6 a.m. Mondays through Saturdays, 7 a.m. Sundays, he opens the doors for business.

“We have our early morning regulars and mid-morning regulars for coffee. That same group comes back about mid-afternoon,” he said. “Guys from around town and farmers.”

The breakfast menu is pretty standard, including eggs, hash browns and pancakes.

“There’s not a big variety, but if I have the stuff, I’ll do special orders,” he said.

Hughes, along with Sandy Obermeyer and Sharyl Johnson, begin serving lunches at 11 a.m.

“These two women have been with me for 10 years now, and they’re really, really good,” he said. “I can’t emphasize how lucky I am to have them — they’re really, really good.”

Hughes said his Wednesday special, the hot beef commercial — a hot beef sandwich smothered in mashed potatoes and made-from-scratch gravy — is one of the most popular.

“We get a lot of people in for the turkey dinners on Sunday, too,” he said.

While the after-church crowd pours in for Sunday breakfasts and lunches, the cafe, which seats anywhere from 30 to 40 people, usually doesn’t have lines.

“On Sundays, sometimes it gets hectic for lunch, but we can usually find room for everybody,” he said.

Hughes can generally be found behind the grill, except on Fridays when he takes the day off. Hughes also has a back-up who comes in if he needs to take other days off and who runs the grill on Saturdays, along with a few high school students who work in the afternoons.

Hughes credits Bricelyn residents for keeping the family business running through the generations.

“I’m pretty lucky to have a town that supports me as well as Bricelyn,” he said. “Our population is only about 350 people. I don’t know how many small towns like ours where you see a business that’s lasted this long.”

And while he likes pretty much everything about running Bud’s Cafe, Hughes said his favorite part is baking, and he’s happy to serve up fresh cakes, bars and pie.

About 10 years ago, when he moved Bud’s to its current location at 405 North Main St., Hughes updated the business to include a small grocery store.

The grocery section carries more foodstuffs than a convenience store, but not as many as a full-scale grocer.

Bud’s Cafe is open from 6 a.m. until 7 p.m. Mondays through Fridays, Saturdays from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sundays 7 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The kitchen closes at 2 p.m. daily.