The Beginning
Our humble beginnings. We started out with zero restaurant experience, very little culinary skills, and a maxed out credit card. The learning curve was steep, but we showed up every day and kept making improvements. It took two summers to really get a handle on things. We made several changes to the menu, bought a few new pieces of equipment, and slowly built a following.
The Evolution
Progress. During our third summer, things really started to take hold. We cut our hours and focused on lunch. We were able to always have three people working in the trailer while we were open. Hungry Hippie founder Greg Konwinski still did all of the prep work and cleanup, but things really started to look up. During the third summer we got the trailer wrapped and business steadily increased throughout the summer. Local chef Kevin Peterson came on board to help on Friday nights, and we had our first live music at the Hippie. During year four, an opportunity came up. We decided the if we wanted to grow, we had to step our game up. Enter the.......
The Hippie Dome
Hippie Dome. In late 2017, we bought the iconic Dairy Queen Dome on State Ave. That winter, we installed a kitchen, put up a new sign, and started our first venture into the brick and mortar restaurant business. We hit the ground running and became on of the go-to spots for lunch in Alpena. There was a lot of late nights and a pretty steep learning curve. After starting out with two very part-time employees our first year, we had 15 people employed during our first summer in the dome.
Summer 2021, we expanded at the Dome to include indoor dining at the Hippie Garage! Not only does this help with additional seating but also gives our patrons the option to cool off in this shaded space. Big Thanks to Aaron Golbeck for adding the Hippie Dude Mural on our wall.
Indoor Dining
New Location
Our new location at 510 N. Ripley opened in November 0f 2021!! The Hippie will now be open for dine in, carry out, or delivery year round. Stop by and check out our new space!!!
