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Est. 1959

Our Story

Three generations of fresh food, real ingredients, and the belief that the hard way tastes better.

Don Hale, founder of Hires Big H
The Beginning

A Grocer's Son Who Believed in Real Food

It started the way a lot of good things start in Utah — with hard work and a family that taught you right. Don Hale was eleven years old when he began working in his parents' garage grocery store during the Great Depression. There wasn't a choice about it. You showed up, you worked, and you paid attention.

His father was known around the neighborhood for his kind disposition — a man who believed that treating people well wasn't just good business, it was the only way to live. His mother was the savvy businesswoman of the family, the one who taught Don careful management and an almost obsessive attention to detail. Together, they gave him everything he needed.

In 1959, Don opened the first Hires Big H on 400 South and 700 East in Salt Lake City. He used every grocery connection he'd built over decades to source the best produce and the best meats. He knew the farmers by name. He knew which ranches took care of their cattle and which ones cut corners. That grocer's instinct — that eye for quality — became the foundation of everything Hires Big H would become.

What Don built wasn't a fast food restaurant. It was a place where a grocer's standards met a family's love of good food. And sixty-six years later, that's exactly what it still is.

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We do it the hard way because the hard way tastes better.
The Hires Big H Way
The Freshness Promise

What Fresh Actually Means

We don't say "fresh" because it sounds good on a menu. We say it because our crew shows up before dawn every single day to make it true.

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Hand-Cut Beef

Fresh USDA Choice beef, never frozen, never pre-made. Our butchers trim the connective tissue and grind the meat in-house daily. We focus on quality and taste above convenience and price.

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Fresh-Cut Fries

Every morning before we open, someone is cutting whole potatoes by hand. Hot water soak to pull the starch, a resting period, then double-fried — first a low-temperature blanch, then the final crisp. Seven steps. No shortcuts.

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Hand-Dipped Onion Rings

Hundreds of pounds of fresh onions sliced daily. Each ring is hand-dipped in our homemade egg batter, coated in seasoned breadcrumbs, then dipped and breaded again. Double-breaded, because we live for that perfect crunch.

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Scratch-Made Dressings

Every dressing on our menu is made from scratch right here — real buttermilk ranch, authentic Roquefort, Thousand Island, French, Italian, and vinaigrette. No jars. No preservatives. Just real food.

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Local Bakery Buns

Our buns come from a local bakery using Don Hale's original 1959 recipe. The same recipe. The same standards. A soft, golden bun that's been part of the Big H tradition for over six decades.

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Daily Inspections

The Utah Department of Agriculture inspects our kitchens every single day — not monthly, not quarterly. And we like it that way. It ensures the quality, freshness, and standards we're proud to serve.

The Man Behind the H

Don Hale: Frugal, Fearless, and Always Ready for Good Food

If you knew Don, you knew the rules. No free straws, you had to ask. Napkins? One per person.

Not because he was cheap. But because he believed every penny should go into the food.

And cleanliness? Non-negotiable. Every crumb in the kitchen, dining room, and parking lot had to be gone after every shift. Don inspected it himself. If it wasn't right, he'd find you, and you'd get a hands-on lesson in how to do it better. He ran a tight ship, because that's who he was, and because he believed a well-run business is the only kind worth running.

But that was only half the story.

The other side of Don was a more carefree, and fun side. He had a deep love for family, travel, and, of course, good food. He knew how to have fun, and nowhere did that show up more than on family trips. Every year or two, Don would take his whole family on a trip… kids, grandkids, the whole gang.

Being as disciplined as Don was, he had rules for those, too, but it was to enforce the maximum amount of fun:

Rule 1: "Go to bed as late as you want — but you must be up with the sun" (and yes, Don, even into his 80s, was usually the last one to bed and the first one up).
Rule 2: "You must try all food being served."
Don Hale at his family grocery store

The Alaska Story

On a family trip to Alaska one summer, Don discovered a new problem: the sun didn't set. Breakfast was at 5:00 AM. Lunch at 10:00 AM. Dinner at 3:00 PM. But at 8:00 PM… it was still bright outside. So naturally — second dinner. By then, the family was stuffed and tired after a long day of activities and eating, but Don was still going strong. And since the sun still hadn't set by midnight… you guessed it, third dinner. That was Don — disciplined, joyful, and always ready for the next meal. Because to him, every meal was an opportunity… and he never wasted one.

The Turkey Story

Traveling through Turkey, Don was ready to try all the local delicacies. He never passed up an opportunity to try new or unique food. At one stop, the family was served several foods and drinks they were not familiar with, including a salted, curdled milk drink. True to Rule 2: "You must try all food being served," the whole family tried it, but not everyone could keep it down. Don finished his glass and probably asked for a second.

Never Stop Growing

In his late 80s and early 90s, Don hiked through the Costa Rican rainforest. He took up piano lessons. He even got braces. Most people slow down at that age. Don Hale decided he still had things to learn, places to see, and ways to improve. He believed in continuous growth, in improvement, in trying new things — no matter how old you were or how much you'd already accomplished.

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Year after year, generation after generation.
The Hale Family
Three Generations

A Family That Feeds Families

Don built the foundation. His children and grandchildren have carried those values forward — adding their own recipes, their own ideas, and their own love to the restaurant.

Jon Hale

The Veggie H

Jon Hale spent hours at the library researching vegetarian cooking and created the Veggie H recipe from scratch — carrots, broccoli, onions, green peppers, celery, mushrooms, brown rice, oats, garlic, spices, and flax seed. Baked fresh in our pizza ovens. It's now the favorite food of several family members.

Krissi (Jon's Sister-in-Law)

The Brownie

Hires' homemade brownie recipe came from Jon Hale's sister-in-law, Krissi, in the 1980s. Real butter, vanilla, cane sugar, whole eggs, Dutch-processed cocoa. It remains one of the family's go-to desserts to this day. Krissi originally called the brownies "Melvin Wedgies," we won't go into detail as to why, but let's just say that it's a delicious chocolatey and fudgy brownie. We choose to call them the best brownie in Utah.

Jon Hale

The Secret Chili

Even in retirement, Jon still personally buys and mixes the secret chili ingredients himself. Some recipes are too important to delegate. The chili is one of them, and when you try it, you'll know why.

Don Hale & Mark Hale

"Opportunity Knocks Twice"

Don and Mark wrote a book about Don's life and the lessons he learned in his, at the time, eight centuries of life. It's the kind of wisdom you can't get from a business school — honest, practical, and full of the same attention to detail Don brought to everything.

Milestones

Sixty-Six Years and Counting

1959
Don Hale opens the first Hires Big H on 400 South and 700 East in Salt Lake City, bringing a grocer's eye for quality to every ingredient on the menu.
1960s
Word spreads across Salt Lake City. Families discover that Hires Big H isn't like other drive-ins — the beef is fresher, the fries are hand-cut, and the root beer is the best they've ever had.
1970s
The next generation joins the business, carrying Don's standards forward while the restaurant becomes a Salt Lake City institution.
1980s
Family recipes like the brownie ("Melvin Wedgies") and the Veggie H join the menu. The Hale family proves that tradition and innovation can share a kitchen.
1990s–2000s
Hires Big H expands to new locations across the Salt Lake Valley, bringing the same fresh, hand-made food to Midvale.
2025
The newest location opens in Daybreak, South Jordan — bringing Hires Big H to a new generation of Utah families while keeping every recipe, every standard, and every value exactly the same.

The Hard Way Tastes Better

We could buy pre-cut fries. We could use frozen beef patties. We could order dressings in bulk from a warehouse. It would be easier. It would be cheaper. But it wouldn't be Hires Big H. Don Hale built this restaurant on a simple belief: if you're going to do something, do it right. Three generations later, we haven't found a reason to disagree.

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