By Brian Ojanpa
Free Press Staff Writer
MANKATO —
Ray and Ann Hager learned this little lesson the day they opened:
Never underestimate the pent-up demand for a reprise of a legendary Mankato hamburger hut.
Guenther’s Cafe, successor to the storied Hilltop Tavern, aka Hamburger Heaven, opened Dec. 16 to throngs that took the couple by surprise.
“All we did was turn on the ‘open’ sign and they came,” Ann says. “We had this illusion that we’d have a couple of months to ramp up.”
Wrong.
The Hagers were operating on the belief that they alone would be able to handle customer traffic. But that notion was dashed immediately.
So hectic was the pace early on that Ray took his homemade onion rings off the menu because they were too time-consuming.
The couple also gratefully accepted the help of friends, who bailed them out by doing food prep work and washing dishes.
Ray admits a certain amount of panic set in.
“I said, ‘I can’t do this.’”
Now, the onion rings are back and the Hagers have seven employees to serve lunch-rush patrons. The customers begin arriving at 10:30 a.m. to ensure seating in the tiny cafe on Madison Avenue that, in its former life, was on a slew of national best-burger lists.
Hilltop Tavern closed seven years ago following a run that began in 1949 under the ownership of Bea Roberts, a chain-smoker whose cigarette burns still pock the cafe’s vintage bar.
The Braam family took over ownership in 1973 and turned the business into an iconic local fixture that remains fresh in the minds of many of Guenther’s customers.
“Everyone’s got a story about Hilltop,” Ann says.
But she and her husband are quick to point out that Guenther’s (named after an adjacent street) strives to emulate Hilltop, not replicate it.
Besides, the Hagers have added their own wrinkles. They serve breakfasts, which Hilltop didn’t do, and their fare whimsically includes a footlong hot dog.
The cafe also serves an old-school treat — malts made with real ice cream and served to customers along with an extra helping in its metal mixing cup.
Ann says 17 members of a family came in one Saturday morning, and all wanted malts.
“The kids were just fascinated,” she says. “They’d never seen a real malt being made.”
