Chain Profile

Each month, FE&S spotlights a new prototype or kitchen design from a chain restaurant.

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Pancakes with a Side of Pics

This breakfast chain builds an audience through bold food and social sharing.

Think of the words “breakfast” and “hash,” and what comes to mind? Probably a dish with some chopped meats, potatoes, and maybe some onions and peppers. 

While Hash Kitchen is a breakfast place, that’s not what the concept is about. The concept does serve a number of hash dishes — how could it not? But the name really describes the experience the chain offers — and especially how people commemorate that experience over social media.

Images courtesy of Hash KitchenImages courtesy of Hash Kitchen

Founding, Then a Quick Turn

Hash Kitchen was founded in 2015 by chef Joey Maggiore and his wife, Cristina, both veteran restaurateurs. A concept development specialist, Joey Maggiore has opened more than 40 restaurants in his career.

The inspiration for the Hash Kitchen concept came from the then-new phenomenon of guests photographing their food. The Maggiores saw this was more than just a fad, though. Recognizing the staying power of food glamour shots — and how this could help build a brand — they set out to create a restaurant with Instagram-friendly food served in a high-energy environment.

Their formula worked, and Hash Kitchen caught on in its home state of Arizona. A few years later, it drew the attention of Savory Fund, a private equity firm specializing in the restaurant industry. In 2021, Savory acquired Hash Kitchen, with the Maggiores retaining a minority stake in the business.

According to Cass Tenney, Savory Fund’s director of development, Hash Kitchen’s approach represents exactly what Savory looks for in a concept: a brand with a surplus of style and personality that naturally draws attention.

Indeed, there’s plenty to catch guests’ eyes from the moment they walk in the door. While Hash Kitchen turned heads before the acquisition, it got a “glow up” thanks to the work of global architecture and design firm Harrison, which was hired to nail down the look and feel.

The designers had a good base with which to start. Hash Kitchen, after all, was designed with social media sharing in mind, so many of the existing design features were a great fit for the chain’s future.

The bloody mary bar is the centerpiece of both the restaurant and the Hash Kitchen experience.The bloody mary bar is the centerpiece of both the restaurant and the Hash Kitchen experience.

The first — and perhaps the most important — signature element guests see is the Build Your Own Bloody Mary Bar. A key part of the experience, this is more than just celery sticks in cold wells with some tongs. Guests have their choice of dozens of ingredients to add, which encourages them to create their own Instagram moment. There’s baby corn, Brussels sprouts, cheeses, bacon, olives, hard-boiled eggs, cured meats and much more.

Hash Kitchen presents all these options in an eye-popping display. Mirrored glass tiles, a recurring element in the chain’s design, cover the bar face. The bar’s elevated food display uses large glass jars to hold ingredients. The jars are on display tucked in with nugget-style ice. A card using the brand’s signature font identifies each garnish.

Burners paired with steam wells are used to execute the corned beef, birria and other hash dishes.Burners paired with steam wells are used to execute the corned beef, birria and other hash dishes.A metallic overhead storage rack holds and displays liquor bottles and glasses. This storage piece attaches to a new cloud element emblazoned with a patterned version of the concept’s hashtag. Faux greenery hangs over the edge of the cloud, helping to warm up the space, says Sarah Jenkinson, Harrison’s U.S. creative director.

While the exact layout varies from store to store, another key feature typically sits nearby: the DJ booth. This space connects to the sound system during the week but plays host to a live DJ on the weekends. The booth itself is slightly raised, helping to create a sense of performance when the DJ is at work. A disco ball and a color-changing hashtag-shaped LED add energy to the space.

According to Whitney Ford, Harrison’s vice president of architecture, the DJ booth provides a key element in creating Hash Kitchen’s energetic, party-like atmosphere. It also helps keep guests entertained as they wait for a table. “At Hash, they often get 1½-hour queues outside,” she says. “Having that kind of energy [from the DJ booth] at the entrance really is great for them.”

Another key element is the restaurant’s shimmer wall — a dining room space covered with reflective sequins that catch the light as they move. The bar (for drinks, not bloody mary toppings) similarly features mirrored tiles on the bar back. 

Ceramic tiles in the chain’s signature navy blue cover the face of the bar. “We didn’t want every single surface to be reflective and blingy. You need some room to rest,” Ford says. 

Of course, a concept like Hash Kitchen limits the areas of visual calm. Other bold design touches include multiple disco balls, oversize black-and-white wall graphics featuring items like boom boxes and champagne glasses, and photo-friendly phrases like “Brunch Life” and “Mornings Are for Mimosas.”

Even more basic items are blingy. Many of the seats are upholstered in blue vinyl, while the backs of some chairs are covered in velvet to add some depth and tactility. For tables, options include freestanding, banquettes and bar-height seating outside. There’s even a “champagne table,” a large featured table that’s a prime location for bachelor and bachelorette parties, says Jenkinson.

Photo-Friendly Food

Of course, the decor isn’t the only eye-catching part of the Hash Kitchen experience. The chain’s food and drinks are also visually appealing.

The bar menu, for instance, features a variety of mimosas and bloody marys, but it also goes all in on fun. There are edible cookie shot glasses filled with sugary cereals and sweet liqueurs, along with drinks served in souvenir cups shaped like disco balls or roller skates.

For those who want something to soak up the boozy brunch, Hash Kitchen offers a menu with creative spins on all sorts of breakfast standards, from Benedicts to pancakes to waffles to (of course) hashes. Guests can order a traditional brioche French toast, for example, but can also get a banana split version with berries and caramelized bananas, all skewered by a waffle cone filled with sweet mascarpone. 

Similarly, the menu includes traditional pancakes, but also strawberry shortcake pancakes with mascarpone and Fruity Pebbles cereal, making for a bright, rainbow-evoking breakfast.

Hash Kitchen’s hot line has 14 total burners and two separate flattops.Hash Kitchen’s hot line has 14 total burners and two separate flattops.

Busy Mornings

For all the flamboyance of Hash Kitchen’s food, the kitchen uses a fairly standard design and equipment package for short-order cooking. The space, though, stands out for its size — a reflection of high peak demand on weekends, says Jesh Mascaro, the chain’s corporate executive chef.

The hot line, for instance, starts with a range top with a full 14 burners. One set of burners sits on a refrigerated base; the other, above an oven, is used to make the concept’s Billionaire’s Bacon appetizer, which features thick-cut bacon with a variety of toppings.

Staff use the burners to make egg dishes, and of course, the chain’s various hashes. These include the classics like corned beef hash, as well as more creative offerings. Some reflect the chain’s Southwest roots, such as the chili relleno hash and “The Best F#*%ing Birria Hash.”

To execute these dishes, the range station pairs with a steam table a 180-degree turn away on the assembly line. This holds items like breakfast meats, warm sauces and sides like mashed potatoes. Line cooks at the range simply turn around to access ingredients, then cook the dishes on the range before finishing them in a salamander above the burners. When completed, hash dishes go back to the cold line for final toppings and garnishes.

Next on the hot line comes two separate flattop grills. One is used for items such as pancakes and French toast; the other is reserved for one of the chain’s most popular items, quesabirria. “We dip those in an orange birria oil before we cook them. It’s messy, and we don’t want that affecting the other items,” says Mascaro.

These flattops sit on a refrigerated chef’s base, which holds items destined for the grill. Next to the flattops is the fryer bank. This consists of three fryers with a total of five bays. Here, staffers make french fries and fried chicken for sandwiches and chicken and waffles. The fryers are also used to make doughnuts topped with a sweet cannoli cream, one of the chain’s signature treats. 

Items bound for the fryer are held in a separate refrigerated chef’s base on the hot line, just a few steps away. The top of the chef’s base serves as a workspace for kitchen staffers. It also holds two waffle makers. 

While the waffle maker/chef’s base marks the end of the hot line, dishes are finished on the cold assembly line, which butts up against a pass-through to the expo station. In addition to the steam table that holds hash ingredients, the cold line has refrigerated worktables that hold vegetables, cheeses and cold sauces.

The chain’s production area isn’t all the back of the house has in store. Hash Kitchen also has a prep kitchen, where staff mix batter and dough, make sauces, and chop and slice veggies. Completing this prep space are the usual suspects, including smallwares, worktables, ovens, a vegetable sink and a mixer, which is used to make batter for waffles and pancakes and dough for biscuits. 

According to Mascaro, staff prep the majority of ingredients in-house. All in all, the chain has a prep list of more than 70 items.

There’s also a double-stack convection oven in the prep kitchen. This is perhaps the most used piece of prep equipment at Hash Kitchen. Prep work, says Mascaro, begins around
6 a.m., when staffers use this piece to make bacon and biscuits. After those initial batches are in the oven, the prep team works on slow-cooked meats, such as corned beef and carnitas. These cook throughout the day in one chamber, while additional breakfast meats and biscuits are made as needed.

The prep kitchen also has two large burners for stockpots. Staff use these to make consommé for the birria and for braising meats, among other tasks.

The kitchen isn’t the only place you’ll find restaurant equipment at Hash. As mentioned, the Build Your Own Bloody Mary Bar displays dozens of ingredients in a refrigerated trough filled with ice. Backup ingredients that require cold storage, like cheese cubes, celery sticks and hard-boiled eggs, are stored in undercounter refrigerators. Larger quantities of these same ingredients are held in the restaurant’s walk-ins. 

The bloody mary bar is also home to one of the only recent changes to Hash’s equipment design. Previously, the espresso machine was located in the expo area near the production line. It’s recently been moved to the front of the house with bloody mary ingredients. This allows the chain to simply sell more coffee, Tenney says. “Because we have long wait times on the weekends, the espresso machine basically functions like a coffee shop,” she says. “You can walk up and get coffee while you’re waiting.”

With more than 70 items on the list, work in the prep kitchen begins around 6 a.m. each day.With more than 70 items on the list, work in the prep kitchen begins around 6 a.m. each day.

Closing

Hash Kitchen today stands at 10 units, double its count when it was acquired by Savory. The chain expects to add three to five units in 2025. This growth, says Tenney, will focus on three markets: Hash Kitchen’s home state of Arizona, Texas and Utah, where the bloody mary bar is replaced by the Build Your Own Donut Bar.

That change is one of the only significant tweaks Savory has made to the Hash Kitchen experience. The company, after all, acquired the concept for the fun and energy it brings to the table. As the chain grows, maintaining that fun — not taming it — will be the goal.

“We don’t want to modify too much of what Hash is doing,” says Tenney. “They got to where they are for a reason. We are plugging them into our engine to help them grow faster.” 

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