The Adobe Flash Player is required to view this multimedia interactive. Get it here.

'Real food’ for 65 years

Spanning three generations, Hyde's Restaurant stays true.

ABOVE: Hyde's Restaurant owners Ashley Tuley (left) and Amy Klaiber are the original owner's granddaughters. The restaurant is celebrating its 65th anniversary this year.

Samantha Grier/Staff photographer ABOVE: Hyde's Restaurant owners Ashley Tuley (left) and Amy Klaiber are the original owner's granddaughters. The restaurant is celebrating its 65th anniversary this year.

ENLARGE PHOTO

Jerry Scrivner of Hamilton, 70, has been eating at Hyde's Restaurant since his mother first brought him there when he was five years old. The restaurant is celebrating its 65th anniversary this year.

Samantha Grier/Staff photographer Jerry Scrivner of Hamilton, 70, has been eating at Hyde's Restaurant since his mother first brought him there when he was five years old. The restaurant is celebrating its 65th anniversary this year.

ENLARGE PHOTO

Beach Waterpark sued by Ohio Attorney General's Office for failure to deliver
Updated 4 min. ago
Worker falls 20 feet from utility pole
New 24 min. ago
Water rescue occurring at Caesar Creek Lake
Updated 27 min. ago
Out-of-state shoppers arrested in clothing theft
10:14 a.m.
Fairfield gas station robbed at gun point
10:02 a.m.
> More headlines

By Eric Schwartzberg, Staff Writer Updated 2:17 PM Thursday, September 8, 2011

HAMILTON — The decor at Hyde’s Restaurant looks a bit different but its owners remain focused on providing down home food at affordable prices.

The restaurant, which celebrates its 65th anniversary this year, underwent renovations this summer, thanks to sisters Amy Klaiber and Ashley Tuley, the original owner’s granddaughters.

The redesign replaced the ceiling, flooring and tabletops, remodeled restrooms and upgraded work stations, but preserved the restaurant’s unique atmosphere.

“We have people who come in here every day, sometimes multiple times a day, and they don’t deal well with change,” Klaiber said. “Because we’ve been here for so long, they like to sit in the same spot and look at the same things.”

The two women started working in the family business six years ago when their father, Mick Hyde, was diagnosed with colon cancer and underwent chemotherapy for 17 months.

Since then they’ve tinkered with the menu here and there – offering “heart healthy” and new seasonal dishes — but have stuck to serving the same “real food” customers have come to expect.

“Our food is homemade, our pies are homemade,” Tuley said. “We do not buy anything ‘prefab’ as I like to call it. We pride ourselves on that and we will always do that.”

Mick Hyde admitted he is “extremely sensitive” about the way things get done around the restaurant, but is proud of what his daughters have accomplished.

“They’ve done some things that I wouldn’t have done but they’ve all been for the best,” he said. “They also deal better with the public and with employees.”

Those employees are the long-term kind. Waitress Annette Borst has been around for 20 years, cook/baker Barb Beckett, cooks Marcella Felts and Debbie Dudley, and waitress Barb Bastin have been around for more than 30 years, while cook and “part-time drill sergeant” Ann Burg has worked there for 45 years.

“They’re part of our family,” Klaiber said.

Return customers account for 90 percent of the restaurant’s business, she said.

“We know their names, we know their families, their orders,” Tuley said.

The restaurant, which started out in August 1946 when brothers Jim and Lloyd ‘Hub’ Hyde purchased an ice cream shop, then expanded in size and menu.

Customers choose from a staggering variety of homemade pies made twice daily.

“We do good comfort food for people,” Klaiber said. “It reminds them of how their grandmother or their mother made it.”

Jerry Scrivner, 70, who stops by Hyde’s once or twice a week for the breakfast special, said he’s been coming to the restaurant since his mother first took him there when he was 5 years old.

He said the restaurant is a favorite spot for celebrations and reunions for current residents or those returning to the area.

“What else has been around this long?” Scrivner said. “All of downtown’s changed, restaurants have come and gone, this place is still here.”

For information, call (513) 892-1287 or visit www.hydesrestaurant.com.

Community Hyde’s Restaurant

Share this article