{"id":89860,"date":"2026-09-15T16:10:40","date_gmt":"2026-09-15T23:10:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/?p=89860"},"modified":"2026-09-15T16:11:58","modified_gmt":"2026-09-15T23:11:58","slug":"hofs-hut-75-years-anniversary-family-owned-staple","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/eat-see-do-2\/eat\/hofs-hut-75-years-anniversary-family-owned-staple","title":{"rendered":"Hof’s Hut started as a burger beachstand 75 years ago. It’s still a family-owned staple."},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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The original Hof\u2019s Hut restaurant in Long Beach. Photo courtesy of Hofman Hospitality Group.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Craig Hofman has spent his entire life with Hof\u2019s Hut \u2014 the Long Beach staple serving breakfast, burgers and pies. As Hofman tells it, his mother was waiting tables in 1951 at the first Hof\u2019s Hut in Belmont Shore when she went into labor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShe had me that same day,\u201d Hofman said. \u201cSo I was kind of born into the business 75 years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This week, Hofman, the chairman of the board for Hofman Hospitality Group, is celebrating his birthday along with the restaurant\u2019s 75th anniversary<\/a>. On Wednesday, customers can get $7.50 burgers and coupons for individual pies at their Seal Beach location<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before there was Hof\u2019s Hut, there was Hoffman\u2019s (originally misspelled on the sign), a small beachstand on Alamitos Beach owned by Hofman\u2019s grandmother, a Dutch immigrant. The stand sold burgers and hot dogs and would close during the winters. But Hofman\u2019s father, Harold, decided to open his own restaurant year-round with a bigger menu.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Harold opened the original Hof\u2019s Hut in Belmont Shore on Sept. 16, 1951. It was a small space with only 15 stools around a U-shaped bar that was open 24 hours, according to Craig.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy dad\u2019s nickname was \u2018Hof\u2019 from Hofman, and the cooking area had a kind of hut, so that\u2019s where the name originated,\u201d Craig said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Craig Hofman, Chairman of Hofman Hospitality Group, looks at a 1960s Hof Huts menu in the boardroom at the company\u2019s Signal Hill headquarters on Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2026. Photo by Thomas R. Cordova.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Craig says the \u201cHofburger\u201d \u2014 a standard burger with thousand island dressing, lettuce, tomato and pickles on a sesame brioche bun \u2014 is his go-to along with the fresh peach pie, when in season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the early years, Craig\u2019s family employed \u201clady pie-makers,\u201d who would come into the kitchens and bake a variety of seasonal pies. One of their first pie makers was Marie Callender \u2014 yes, the<\/em> Marie Callender, who later went on to open her own chain of restaurants, bakeries and frozen food franchises.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Craig started working at Hof\u2019s Hut as a \u201csoda jerk\u201d making malts, shakes and root beer floats when he was 12 years old.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Growing up, Craig saw the restaurant as something interesting his parents did and a steady summer job. It wasn\u2019t until 1969, when Harold died from a heart attack and Craig graduated from high school, that he began to focus on the family business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n Link<\/a>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

After his father\u2019s passing, Craig started college at Arizona State University and his mother, Donna, took over the business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think it was very hard for her,\u201d Craig said. \u201cBut she was a very strong-willed woman and she knew what she wanted. Not a lot of women at that time were running a business.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Donna distinguished the family restaurant by adding outdoor patios \u2014 a rare feature for restaurants in the 1970s. Craig recalls that after his mother returned from a trip to Paris in 1971, she added patio spaces at Hof\u2019s Hut restaurants. \u201cIt became a real success,\u201d Craig said. \u201cThen when every Hof\u2019s Hut was either remodeled or a new one, we added patios. Outdoor patios became kind of the norm.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Hof\u2019s Hut original restaurant in Belmont Shore, which is now Saint & Second on 2nd St. Photo courtesy of Hofman Hospitality Group.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Eventually, Donna told Craig that if he wanted to see Hof\u2019s Hut continue, he needed to come home to help. He transferred to Cal State Long Beach and the family expanded Hof\u2019s Hut to 13 locations around the Long Beach area, including several in Orange County. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the \u201990s, Hofman Hospitality Group expanded to create a Southern-style barbecue restaurant, Lucille\u2019s<\/a>, to fill the barbecue gap in Long Beach. Craig converted several of the Hof\u2019s Hut locations to Lucille\u2019s. Today, there are 19 Lucille\u2019s restaurants across Southern California with locations in Nevada and Arizona as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While only three Hof\u2019s Huts remain (Torrance, Seal Beach and Long Beach) the restaurant continues to play a key role in Craig\u2019s life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All four of Craig\u2019s children grew up working in the family restaurant and now help manage the business in different capacities. One of Craig\u2019s grandchildren may get involved soon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOne of them is turning 12, so he\u2019ll be working summers there before you know it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Looking forward, Craig hopes his children continue to expand the business and \u201cthat they continue to thrive, and enjoy what the restaurant business is all about.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hof\u2019s Hut\u2019s<\/a> Seal Beach location is at 12489 Seal Beach Blvd. and is open Sunday through Thursday from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Friday through Saturday from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. They also have locations in Long Beach and Torrance.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The owner behind the Long Beach mainstay has kept the restaurant and bakery in the family with a menu that\u2019s remained relatively unchanged.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29035,"featured_media":89858,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"hidden","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"The owner behind the Long Beach mainstay has kept the restaurant and bakery in the family with a menu that\u2019s remained relatively unchanged.","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[32365],"tags":[32420],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[32346],"class_list":["post-89860","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-eat","tag-local-history","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89860","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29035"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89860"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89860\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":89864,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89860\/revisions\/89864"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/89858"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89860"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=89860"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=89860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}