The Last Supper
/
On Friday night at 7:01, Grace stepped out of the kitchen and handed me the year’s very last order from the Hubba Hubba Smokehouse kitchen. With only outdoor seating, Flat Rock’s iconic Barbecue joint officially closed for the season at 7 pm on October 30, and I was the lucky soul who received the final order of 2020.
I opened the bag and was greeted by the enticing aroma of pulled pork served with tempting and perennially popular sides of pimento cheese grits, apple slaw, cornbread, and banana pudding. As Last Supper’s go, there was never a doubt in my mind that this one would be something special.
Generally speaking, 2020 has been a very difficult year for restaurants. Hubba Hubba, however, was able to buck the disappointing trends and actually had a stellar season of serving savory sustenance.
The final meal served at Hubba Hubba in 2020. P
General Manager, Mara Erdman, spent a few minutes with me as I waited for the last order to emerge from the kitchen whose aromas entice thousands of visitors each year as they stroll along Rainbow row. We discussed what has been simultaneously her most challenging and most rewarding experience while working at the small restaurant tucked in behind The Wrinkled Egg. “We’ve never had a season where people were more grateful and encouraging and just thankful to have us here,” says Mara. “It was really wonderful and just a cool opportunity to connect with people.”
Customer service can be challenging during the best of times. During the worst of times - a deadly pandemic for example - it all could have gone sideways for Mara and her crew. For the most part, however, Mara found people to be respectful of the restaurant’s health and safety protocols. “The way I would describe it is that we saw the absolute best and the absolute strangest,” explained Mara with smiling eyes above her blue surgical mask.
It was also a lot of work to adapt to regulations and protocols that seemed to be constantly changing. “It felt like we were opening up a new restaurant every week. We never fully got our feet under us because we were trying to keep up and everything was always changing.”
Mara credits her streamlined and unchanging core group of five employees with much of Hubba Hubba’s success. “We weren't bringing in new people all the time. With a smaller group, you can know where everybody is and no one ever got sick.” But the work was hard and the dangers felt very real to Mara. “Everyone got pretty tired and sometimes it was scary. I have older parents and I haven't done anything with them indoors this whole season because I'm not in control of the people I interact with every day. I love those interactions, but we were at higher risk because of our work.”
The small staff’s hard work and ability to react to a constantly changing environment ultimately paid off with a season that exceeded all expectations. “I think that it's been busier than any year I've been here because we have outdoor seating and people saw that we were working really hard to keep it sanitary. We went through a quart size of sanitizer every two days,” Mara says with a laugh.
Mara also credits owner Starr Teel’s commitment to good food and creating a comfortable and attractive ambiance for patrons. “People could come here in a dark time and still enjoy good food while sitting in a really beautiful space.” Indeed, the entire Rainbow Row is a riot of colorful flowers, whimsical art, and campy signage - along with the occasional designer chicken and an omnipresent feline host named Squirt walking from table to table to check on patrons and wayward scraps of food.
When asked if it is hard to close down operations after a successful season, Mara admits that the HH crew was a bit wistful about shutting down the kitchen. “We have been having so much fun. We felt like we should just stay open. But the past few days have been the first slow days all season. So we know we're closing right on time. It’s not the same place when it's cold.”
What’s next for the Hubba Hubba team? Good news. They will all move just up the hill to their sister restaurant, Campfire Grill. And they will spend a lot of time during the next four weeks preparing special Thanksgiving Meals offered by Campfire, Hubba Hubba, and Our Recipe Roots. Mara says that reaction to the Thanksgiving Special has been gratifying already - and much needed given the circumstances of people’s lives. “Thanksgiving looks different this year for a lot of people. There's no status quo anymore. We love hearing what people want and need and then offering something that makes them happy during this time.”
The most important question of the interview? When will Hubba Hubba re-open? According to Mara, Mother Nature is the ultimate arbiter of Opening Day at Hubba Hubba. Depending on the arrival of warmer weather, look for Mara and her staff to be back in the kitchen in April or May of 2021.
The Hubba Hubba Team. Ben, Spencer, Grace, Paola, Mara.
As the last patrons of the year finished their meals and started to drift away into a chilly October night, Mara, Grace, Paola, Ben, and Spencer gathered for one last photo and a rare still moment to celebrate an unexpected success in the face of the most challenging times of their young lives.
Arriving home, I removed my dinner from the various take out containers and immortalized the last meal out of Hubba Hubba’s 2020 kitchen in a photographic culinary tableau. It was almost too pretty to eat.
The Last Hubba Hubba Supper
Almost.
For now, the memory of that last mouth-watering bite of banana pudding will have to sustain this author until the weather warms enough to rouse the good food and good people of Hubba Hubba Smokehouse out of a well-earned winter hibernation. And when they do, hungry locals and visitors to Flat Rock will be there to welcome them back.
Closing night at Hubba Hubba
Last diners at Hubba Hubba for 2020.
Re-opening in April or May of 2021.
