Galen, Lori & Megan Fink • 15523 Tuttle Creek Blvd. • Randolph, Kansas 66554
785-293-5106 (phone and FAX) • finkbull1@twinvalley.net
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Hays House Restaurant
CONGRATULATIONS TO Dan Doerge and staff of the Hays House 1857 Restaurant, Council Grove, Kansas, on being awarded one of the 8 Wonders of Kansas Cuisine announced on 6/19/09 by the Kansas Sampler Foundation.
The 8 Wonders of Kansas Cuisine
The Kansas Sampler Foundation announced the results for the 8 Wonders of Kansas Cuisine. In alphabetical order the top 8 are:
Bobo's Drive In, Topeka
Brookville Hotel, Abilene
Cozy Inn, Salina
Crawford County Fried Chicken (i.e. Barto's Idle Hour, Chicken Annie's, Chicken Annie's Girard, Chicken Annie's Pichler's, Chicken Mary's, Gebhardt's)
Free State Brewing Company, Lawrence
Guy & Mae's Tavern, Williamsburg
Hays House 1857 Restaurant & Tavern, Council Grove
WheatField's Bakery Cafe, Lawrence
After almost 8 weeks of voting, 13,861 votes were cast to determine the 8 most iconic Kansas restaurants from a list of 24 finalists. Foundation director Marci Penner said, "The contest was designed to determine the most iconic restaurants in Kansas. There were 24 excellent finalists and we are pleased with the interest level and heightened awareness for the contribution Kansas iconic restaurants make to the landscape of our state."
See more information:
http://www.kansassampler.org/8wonders/cuisineresults.php
Oldest Continuous restaurant West of the Mississippi -
Kansas Beef Backer Award Winner
Visit the Hays House Web site.
Historic Hays House Has New Manager
October 28, 2004
Daniel H. Doerge, whose 25 years of experience in food service has been in establishments well known to many in this area, is on hand as the new manager of the Historic Hays House. He succeeds Michelle Blanton, who is returning to her home state of Florida. This announcement was made by owners Galen and Lori Fink and Bill and Debbie Miller.
Doerge came here from Dodge City, where he had been general manager since March 1998 of the 400-member-owned country club with a dining room seating 125. His position here returns him to the area where his prior service had been.
He worked his way through the Hotel and Restaurant Management Program at KSU and from January 1979 to May 1982 was evening kitchen manager of Houston Street Restaurant and Pub, Manhattan.
From May 1982 to February 1987, Doerge was manager of Aggie Station Restaurant, 6,500-member Kansas private club in Manhattan. He was F&B and Clubhouse Manager at the Manhattan Country Club the next 10 years. He then served as director of catering at the K-State Student Union for one year.
Much of his extensive experience in the field was during the time he was working his way toward a degree, which he acquired in 1990.
The Finks and Millers are excited to have Dan on board at the Hays House and encourage everyone to stop by and introduce themselves when in the Council Grove area.
Hays House Restaurant Under New Ownership
As printed in the Council Grove Republican, October 15, 2002
The historic Hays House 1857 Restaurant, the oldest continuously operating restaurant west of the Mississippi River, is under new ownership today.
Galen and Lori Fink, Manhattan, and Bill and Debbie Miller, Council Grove, have purchased the famous Council Grove business from Rick and Alisa Paul who have owned the restaurant since 1988.
Russ Loub, Manhattan, will be manager of the Hays House.
Early history of the establishment dates back to 1847 when Seth Hays, a great-grandson of frontiersman Daniel Boone, built a log cabin near the site of the present Hays House Restaurant, to establish trade with the Kaw Indians and to cater to settlers and travelers along the Santa Fe Trail.
The Hays House Restaurant was erected in 1857. It was a place where meals were served, mail was distributed, court was held, drama was performed, church meetings held, rooms were rented and a newspaper printed.
Patrons of the Hays House in its early days included some of the legendary figures of America’s frontier West, among them Jesse James and General George Armstrong Custer.
To Continue Tradition
Loub and the new owners said Monday afternoon after the transaction was finalized that they plan to continue the tradition of the Hays House, with the same menu, same staff, and same days and hours of operation.
The Hays House, under the ownership of the Pauls, and Little Apple Brewing Company restaurant, Manhattan, with Loub as general manager, each have twice received the Beef Backer of the Year award.
Loub, who also is a partner in the Little Apple Brewing Company, indicated he plans to introduce some specialty ale and other brewery products at the Hays House.
He has been involved in the restaurant and private club business for 30 years. Loub is a member of the board of directors of the Kansas Restaurant Association, and currently serves as treasurer of the organization.
He and his wife, Kelly, have five children. They plan to continue to live in Manhattan.
Galen and Lori Fink also are part owners of the Little Apple Brewing Company restaurant, and own Fink Beef Genetics, Manhattan, which is considered one of the best Angus and Charolais operations in the United States.
Bill Miller is director of communications for U.S. Premium Beef, and his wife, Debbie, is a writer for Midwest Living (magazine). They plan to continue in those positions.
Rick Paul will help the new owners and manager through the transition period.
Paul, who started work at the Hays House in April 1981, said he and his wife are “excited they found people who will continue the Hays House tradition, with the foundation we have laid – history and good food.”
He also acknowledged they have mixed emotions in leaving the Hays House.
“It is very hard to leave after 21 years of giving everything I have to it, but I am ready for a change, Paul said. “I have a lot of faith in the staff. They are the reason the Hays House has been successful.”
Paul indicated that having a local connection (Bill and Debbie Miller) was important to him and his wife in making the decision to sell.
The family will continue to live in Council Grove. Alisa Paul is owner of Redbud Design here.
Building Restored in 1970s
The four people who can best tell the Hays House story are the two couples whose lives are now written indelibly into its pages: Helen & Charlie Judd and Rick & Alisa Paul.
The Judds ended their teaching careers in California in 1974, and returned to Helen’s hometown and to the restaurant business that her grandparents had bought in 1911.
Their enterprise resulted in the complete restoration of the Hays House.
Rick and Alisa Paul have been keepers of the dream. Rick started work for the Judds in 1981 as a salad bar attendant. He liked to cook at home, but had never worked in a restaurant.
In 1988, Rick and Alisa agreed to buy the Hays House from the Judds, and to preserve its legacy.
“We won’t sacrifice quality for anything,” Rick said a few years ago. His words were not a marketing slogan; they affirmed his passion to serve only the best.
The Hays House legacy might not have been.
Had the Judds taken the advice of the architect they engaged in June 1974, there would be no 1857 restaurant in Council Grove.
“He advised we tear down the place, sell the walnut and build whatever we wanted,” Helen remembers. “We got another architect.”
They preserved as much of the flavor of the 1857 restaurant as possible. Notches in the huge timber stringers that had supported the floor joists were left exposed, and the charred rafters from an 1883 fire that burned the restaurant’s roof were left exposed in the Seth room, along with the hand-hewn lathe and mortar board that had once been concealed behind plaster.
Today, rooms in the Hays House are filled with artifacts that bring history alive, including a crystal collection, paintings, and arrowheads and other Indian artifacts. There is a claw foot tub in the upstairs ladies room, and a water closet with an overhead tank, hewn from native walnut and an authentic piece of early Americana.
Meat hooks still hang from the Cellar Room, in the very places they had been when the room was excavated during the 1974 restoration project.
The stainless steel kitchen is a laboratory for continual experimentation and adaptation. It is a studio in which the masterful chef works his art.
But, most of all, the Hays House kitchen is the treasure trove from which come such delicacies as cranberry-strawberry pie, delectable steaks and prime rib, and marvelous made-from-scratch muffins, breads and cakes.
It is in this kitchen that only fresh peaches are sliced into piecrusts, and it is here that real cream is placed on top. It is in this kitchen that five gallons of ice cream are made each day by hand.
The Judd’s took pride in the Hays House legacy, the Pauls shared their vision and enthusiasm, and today the new owners take their place in history to continue the tradition of the famous 1857 restaurant that has drawn customers from across the United States.