Tom Hughes sits in one of the original booths at Bud’s Cafe, above. He has owned and operated the cafe in Bricelyn for the past 41 years, but now is going to retire. That is a photo of his mother and father, Bud and Iva Hughes, on the menus. They had owned it since 1948, and Tom’s uncle Vern had it starting in 1932.

After 91 years of being owned and operated by the same family, Bud’s Cafe and Market in Bricelyn has come to the end of the road.

The last days of being open were Saturday and Sunday, March 21 and 22.

The last member of the Hughes family to own the restaurant, Tom Hughes, said it was time for him to quit, and he had no one who was interested in taking it over.

“I have owned it and run it for 41 years,” Hughes says. “I took it over in 1985. I’m 66 now and it is time for me to retire.”

It was Tom Hughes’ uncle Vern Hughes who first owned the cafe back in 1932. Tom’s father (and Vern’s brother) James “Bud” Hughes, worked for Vern in the cafe.

Both men went off to serve in the military in World War II. Tom Hughes says they had some female employees who kept the cafe going. Tom is also unsure what the name of the cafe was during those years.

In 1948, James “Bud” Hughes married Frost native Iva Oppedal, and Vern Hughes turned the keys to the restaurant over to his younger brother Bud and his new bride.

The name of the restaurant became Bud’s Cafe. Vern Hughes went to North Dakota where he sold cars for 16 years in Valley City, North Dakota, before once again buying a cafe in Valley City.

But back in Bricelyn Bud and Iva were busy with the cafe there.

“The cafe was located about where Brush Creek Boutique is now,” Tom Hughes says. “My older brother and I grew up in the upstairs apartment over the cafe.”

In an article in the Oct. 1, 1992 issue of the Kiester-Bricelyn Courier-Sentinel, Tom Hughes is quoted as saying “I remember that we had all of our family holiday celebrations right here in the restaurant. Everyone came here, this is where we celebrated.”

Tom was five years old and his older brother John was 10 in 1965, the year their father, Bud, died of a brain tumor.

Their mother, Ida, kept the cafe going, in good times and bad, as well as raising her two boys.

“Mom just took over the business,” Tom explains in the 1992 interview. “It was what she knew how to do. We always ate our meals down in the cafe, and it has always been home.”

Tom graduated from Mankato State and lived for a year in Salt Lake City before taking up residence in Minneapolis.

Then in 1984, Tom’s mother, Iva, died unexpectedly, and the future of the cafe again came into question.

Tom decided he would take over the cafe and just see how that would go. It went pretty well – for the next 41 years.

“My mom never encouraged me to come back to Bricelyn and take over the business,” Tom says in the 1992 interview. “But I think in the back of her mind she knew it would be a good deal for me if I chose to do it.”

Three employees at Bud’s Cafe kept it going until Tom could move there and take it over. He says they also taught him the ropes and what to do and thanks to them it was successful. They were Darlene Johnson, Norma Carlson and Pauline Tysver.

In 2000 Tom Hughes bought the building on the corner that had been a grocery store owned by Chuck Holmseth – and was a clothing store before that – and moved Bud’s Cafe to that site, where it has been located ever since.

Since it had some grocery store fixtures like shelving and coolers, he kept groceries on hand for Bricelyn residents to purchase without having to go out of town.

He moved the original Bud’s Cafe booths and lunch counter and stools and other items to the new site, and they are still located there. Those booths have had a lot of use over the past 91 years.

Like his mother, Tom enjoys the cooking and the baking more so than the business part. And back in 2013, he received some state-wide attention for his skills in the kitchen.

Bud’s Cafe was voted as having the best pancakes in the state of Minnesota.

It was the result of a poll taken by WCCO-TV News. Their news team traveled to Bricelyn to present the award and film the event for a segment on their evening news show.

Tom says he was very surprised that Bud’s Cafe was chosen. He says he simply followed his mother’s recipe to make the plate-sized pancakes.

Now that he has closed the cafe and is retired, Tom says one thing he is going to do is get used to a different routine. “I’m going to try not to get up at 5:30 every morning and go to work,” he says. “I will have to get used to a whole new routine.”

He also has another plan.

“I have always liked to golf,” he says. “I always played crappy golf. Now I will just play more crappy golf.”

Tom’s wife, Sheri, works at Scheels in Mankato, and will continue to work there. She is not quite ready to retire.

The couple do not have children, but Tom says he has six nieces and nephews. His older brother John, a retired doctor, still lives in the Twin Cities.

With the closing of Bud’s Cafe, there are other folks who will need to develop a new routine, as well.

So many people are going to have to find somewhere else to get award-winning pancakes and the best hamburgers around, not to mention some great strong coffee.

“I’m going to miss visiting with all our regular customers,” Tom Hughes says. “It was always a great part of running the place. It was for my parents, too.”