Published September 2001

Popular HUB closes, plans to re-open in new digs

By Leslie Moriarty
Herald Writer

SNOHOMISH — For one last time Aug. 15, Steve Dana donned his apron and fried hamburgers on the grill at the HUB Drive In.

And then, when closing time came, he turned off the grill and hung up his apron.

At least until March.

The end has come for an old Snohomish institution, the HUB Drive In at 10th Street and Avenue D. But a new beginning is in the making. Dana, owner of the drive-in, plans a new HUB2K restaurant to open in March at the same location.

Steve and brothers Tom and Rick, who have worked in the business for 40 years since parents Nowell and Shirley Dana bought it, took the 1949 building out in style with a champagne and cake reception for former employees and friends of the drive-in.

“I wanted to do something that would allow all the people who worked here over the years to come back here for one last time,” Steve Dana said.

With places like McDonald’s across the street, he felt the HUB had to grow to be able to compete in the burger business; his old grill can only fit nine burgers at a time.

In the past several months, Snohomish has been realigning the streets to allow better traffic flow and to add a stoplight.

That made way for Dana to have room to expand. He plans to tear down a house that sits next to the HUB and construct a three-story building where the house and the old HUB sit. The building will face Avenue D.

The restaurant will occupy the first floor. It will seat 50 people and will have a room in which groups can host luncheon meetings.

Approximately 2,400 square feet of leased office space will be on the second floor, and a third floor will have two apartments.

Steve Dana promises his original hamburger menu will remain. But he wants the restaurant to be more of a sit-down type of place.

He knows it has been the aura of the 1950s-style drive-in that has kept the HUB so popular for years.

The HUB originated across from the old Snohomish Fairgrounds and next to a railroad track, a central business in town, and hence, the name HUB.

On an average day, the HUB sells about 130 hamburgers. Many of those are Panther burgers, named for the Snohomish High School mascot.

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