Popular Southern food chain to open second SLO County location. Here’s where and when
Popular restaurant chain Huckleberry’s will start dishing out Southern food and down-home hospitality north of the Cuesta Grade this summer.
Greg Graber, CEO of Heritage Restaurant Brands, and franchisee Ray Tavakkoli say the chain plans to open its second San Luis Obispo County location in Atascaderoby mid-July.
Huck’s, as fans call it, specializes in “Southern cookin’ with a California twist.”
The retro-themed restaurant chain serves up down-south dishes such as beignets, Cajun eggs benedict, Creole-style catfish and fried green tomatoes.
Diners enjoy breakfast and lunch beneath artist-made, indoor willow trees laced with sparkling lights, to the sounds of cricket chirps and Zydeco music. A resin alligator helps set the scene.
Employees call customers “sir,” “ma’am” and “y’all” and chant, “Who’s your huckleberry?”
In addition to takeout and dine-in service, “We do a tremendous amount of catering, even breakfasts,” Tavakoli said. “Nobody does as much of that as we do.”
Restaurant chain got its start in Pismo Beach
Some South County diners already are familiar with Huckleberry’s.
The Brooks ranching family opened the first Huckleberry’s in Pismo Beach in 2008 and had expanded those holdings to seven California locations by 2016.
That’s when the Brooks sold the Huckleberry’s chain and two others — Cool Hand Luke’s Steak House and Saloon and Perko’s Cafe Grill old-fashioned burger spots — to Heritage Restaurant Brands, a multi-concept corporation based in San Luis Obispo.
“Southern hospitality has always been part of Huckleberry’s culture,” said Tavakoli. “But when Heritage took the company over, we laser focused in ensuring that this culture was alive, and everyone was focused on it to enhance the guests’ experience.”
According to Graber, Heritage Restaurant Brands currently has a total of 44 restaurants open: 32 Huckleberry’s locations, six Perko’s spots and six Cool Hand Luke’s locations.
Total sales revenue for the company’s restaurants is approximately $100 million annualized, he said.
“We plan to reach 100 Huckleberry’s by 2027,” he said, a 35% growth rate. “Expansion plans include California, Arizona, Nevada, Texas, Tennessee and the Midwest.”
In addition to the Atascadero location, Heritage Restaurant Brands is close to opening three Huckleberry’s restaurants: one in San Jose and two in Texas, according to the company’s website.
Meanwhile, Randy Brooks said his family is still in the restaurant trade.
The Brooks own and operate their Brook’s Burgers burger joint in Pismo Beach at 220 Five Cities Drive and a Central Coast food truck. They’re establishing another food truck in Clovis.
There’s a Brook’s Burgers in the San Luis Obispo Public Marketplace development, 134 Tank Farm Road in San Luis Obispo, but the Brook’s Burgers in Fresno is temporarily closed.
Huckleberry’s to open second SLO County location
Before Tavakoli joined Heritage Restaurant Brands in 2019, he was director of operations for a large restaurant corporation, eventually overseeing management of 50 Hometown Buffet locations across the country.
Tavakoli, who lives in Fresno but wants to move to San Luis Obispo County, currently operates three Huckleberry’s restaurants: one in Clovis and two in Fresno.
The Atascadero location will be the fourth for Tavakoli, who said he and the company are on track to open two other California Huckleberry’s by the end of 2023.
Graber, however, said that “without definitive signed agreements” in hand, he hesitates to release the specific cities yet. “Things are in the works, though.”
The Atascadero Huckleberry’s is set to open in the former location of Denny’s restaurant at 6910 El Camino Real, a block from Sunken Gardens park.
Tavakoli is leasing the location from his farmer friend, J.R. Shannon, for about $18,000 a month.
Tavakoli said he expects to hire about 50 employees for the Atascadero restaurant.
Meanwhile, his crew is revamping the building to the tune of more than $500,000.
“The building will be transformed,” Graber said.
“The whole ‘front of the house’ will look new and different,” Tavakoli said, “You might recognize the building, but you won’t recognize the restaurant inside. It makes you feel like you’re walking into a bayou. And once you get the food, you’ll know what it’s all about and why there’s a line out the door waiting to get in.”
The old Denny’s had been the subject of other negotiations before Shannon bought it and Tavakoli signed on.
The new owners of A-Town Diner in Atascadero had announced in November that they planned to move to that building. They backed out of the deal a month later, citing the cost and condition of the structure.
How Southern food chain survived COVID-19 shutdown
According to Tavakoli, he and other Heritage Restaurant Brands franchisees were among the restaurant owners hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic, which started just three years after the corporation formed.
Graber said Heritage’s close relationships with their franchisees made the crisis easier to navigate.
“We got together with them and told them we were not going to change anything that they weren’t willing to live with after the pandemic was over,” he said. “We communicated with them regularly.
“When we emerged from the pandemic and the units opened back up, Huckleberry’s really took off.”
Tavakoli’s Fresno Huckleberry’s restaurant opened in August 2019, and had to shut down in February 2020 due to COVID-19 restrictions. The eatery reopened that summer, setting up an outdoor tent in July.
The restaurant survived because of the backing it got from the community, he said.
“It was amazing,” Tavakoli said. “People would sit outside in that tent at 110 degrees (in the) summer. They supported us, ordering stuff, just to keep us afloat.”
Graber attributes some of the chain’s popularity to “the magic of Huckleberry’s unique setting, reminiscent of the bayou but contemporary, with genuine down-home hospitality.”
The main attractions, though, he said, are the food and customers’ desire for a connection to the people who serve them.
“I can get service from an ATM,” Graber said. “But I can only get hospitality from personal interaction … People want to leave their cares in the glove box and be taken care of.”
This story was originally published May 9, 2023 at 5:30 AM.
