When Ed Hebson was learning the restaurant business from his father, a co-owner of Hackney’s on Lake Avenue in Glenview, he couldn’t understand why his dad handed out gift certificates and donations to dozens of organizations.
“I’d think, What are you doing?” Hebson said of his father, Denny. “We can’t be the supporter of so many community groups and churches and schools. How can you keep saying yes?”
But after Ed and his brother Jim became co-owners a few years ago of the Hackney’s in Chicago’s South Loop, he understood.
“I thought you could never get back all that you gave out, but now I see it does come back,” he said.
While the restaurant Denny Hebson co-owns is well known for its onion rings and hamburgers on dark rye, he is well known around Glenview for his generosity and community spirit.
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“Lots of organizations call on him, and he’s always there to help out,” said Kathy Miles, president of the Glenview Chamber of Commerce.
Hebson, 66, wasn’t born into the restaurant business; he married into it. His wife, Liz, is the daughter of the late Jim and Marcella “Kitz” Masterson, the original owners of Hackney’s on Lake. Hebson learned about the restaurant business and dealing with people from his father-in-law. “I admired that man so much,” Hebson said.
Hebson grew up in Skokie and graduated from Evanston’s St. George High School, now closed. He played football for Marquette University in Milwaukee and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in business administration in 1960. He worked for Ditto Corp., a Chicago company that made an early form of copy machine, for a year, then spent six months in the Army. When he got out in 1961, he married Liz, whom he had met at Marquette.
When Liz’s father asked Hebson if he wanted to join the family restaurant business, he didn’t take long to answer.
“I was always attracted to the restaurant business, so it took me about two minutes to decide,” he said.
Some of the honors Hebson has received over the years are on display in Hackney’s on Lake. They include the Chamber of Commerce Business Person of the Year Award in 1991, the Chamber of Commerce Business of the Year award in 1997 and a plaque from the National Restaurant Association in 2000 noting Hebson’s election to the association’s board.
Hebson also was chairman of the Illinois Restaurant Association board in 1993 and president of the Glenview Chamber of Commerce in 1995.
Hebson isn’t likely, however, to talk about his awards or public service, friends said. One of those friends, Leo Stec, began joining service and charitable organizations after moving to Glenview about 10 years ago. Stec, who owns Saturn of Glenview, kept running into the same person at every meeting.
“Inevitably, [Hebson] was there,” Stec said. “I started to model myself after him. He’s the best. He’s always giving back. But he does it in a very low-key way.”
Hackney’s was named for Jack and Helen “Bebe” Hackney, who sold home brew and corned beef sandwiches from a porch on the back of their house on Harms Road in Glenview in the 1920s. When Prohibition was repealed in 1933, the couple created a small tavern in what had been their garage, and Bebe began selling the Hackneyburger.
When Bebe died in 1939, a few years after her husband’s death, she left the tavern to her sister Betty Masterson Engels. Jim Masterson, Betty’s son, bought the business from his mother for $1 “and love and affection,” Liz Hebson said.
Masterson and his wife expanded Hackney’s to the Lake Street location in 1955. Jim Masterson died in 1987; Marcella Masterson served as president of the company until she died in June at age 86.
The seven Masterson children were raised in a house next to the Harms Road restaurant. “The restaurant was part of our lives from the time we could walk and talk,” Liz Hebson said. “If we wanted to see Dad, we ran into the tavern.”
Denny Hebson began working at the Lake Street location in 1962. He tended bar, waited tables and learned the business. He liked it “from Day One,” he said. “Every day is a little different. Nothing stays the same. I think that’s what keeps you going.”
The Hebsons, who live in Glenview, have four children, all of whom worked in the restaurant at one time or another. Daughter Mary Corby worked full time at Hackney’s on Lake until a year ago, when she had her first child. She still works there part time. Ed and Jim Hebson worked at Hackney’s on Lake for more than 10 years, then opened the Printer’s Row Hackney’s nearly two years ago. Denny Jr. is the only son not in the business; he owns an advertising agency.
Denny and Liz Hebson and Liz Hebson’s siblings own the two Glenview locations and the restaurants in Wheeling, Palos Park and Lake Zurich. Many children, grandchildren and cousins work in the six restaurants.
Board meetings with owners and accountants are held monthly, and every week or so “we all get together and discuss different problems and talk about what’s doing good for each of us,” Hebson said. “We’re a little independent, with everyone running their own show.”
Hebson has the biggest “show” to run. Hackney’s on Lake has expanded several times and now seats about 600 people on three floors. A big part of the business is filling the banquet rooms with parties.
Liz Hebson helps book banquets and works part time as a hostess.
Denny Hebson can be found at the restaurant almost every day. He frequently arrives at about 9 a.m. to work in the office. He goes home and returns for the lunch crowd, leaves in the afternoon but returns for the dinner crowd.
“He doesn’t take a real day off, and the reason for that is he enjoys it,” said Jeff Frystak, one of three managers at Hackney’s on Lake. “He doesn’t have a problem putting in the hours because he really enjoys being here.”
Frystak credits Hebson with being an innovator. He was one of the first restaurant owners in the area to put in computers in the early 1980s, Frystak said. Later he added a light system that alerts wait staff when their orders are ready. “He is always interested in finding better ways of doing things,” Frystak said.
The menu has changed at Hackney’s as people’s tastes changed. As many as 90 percent of customers ordered hamburgers in Hebson’s early years with the restaurant, he estimated. That figure is down to about 50 percent, but the number of burgers sold each week at Hackney’s on Lake remains high at about 3,500.
“People basically wanted meat years ago,” Hebson said. “We didn’t have Caesar salads then like we do now.”
Although business is good, the restaurant is facing new challenges as more restaurants open in Glenview, including 13 in The Glen Town Center, Hebson said. For the first time in years, Hebson said, he is thinking about launching a major advertising campaign.
Ed Hebson, though, believes people will remain loyal to Hackney’s because of its reputation as a local meeting place and generous community supporter.
“Everyone knows Hackney’s in Glenview,” he said. “It’s a staple there. It’s going to make it through hard times while other restaurants might not be able to.”
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Besides such donations as Hackney’s gift certificates for school fundraisers, Hebson runs a Christmas raffle that raises about $4,000 each year for local charities. For 13 years he has organized an annual golf fundraiser in memory of a friend who died while waiting for a heart transplant. This year he donated the proceeds to a scholarship fund at the Illinois Restaurant Association.
Hebson has no plans to slow down.
“People say, Aren’t you going to retire?” he said. “I’m sort of retired now. I don’t work as many hours as I used to. What else am I going to do? My golf game is pretty rotten, and I can’t say I want to travel all the time. After all these years, I still look forward to coming to work.”
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Denny Hebson
Title: Executive vice president of Hackney’s Restaurants and co-owner of Hackney’s on Lake in Glenview.
Years in field: 42.
Education: Bachelor’s degree in business administration from Marquette University.
Favorite accomplishment: “When I first started here, we had two restaurants. Now we’ve expanded to six. So growing the business was an accomplishment. And also becoming a big part of Glenview. We’re the meeting place for school functions, village functions, Rotary, Kiwanis.”
Biggest challenge: “Lately, it’s trying to stay ahead of the competition and making sure our service is right, our cleanliness is right, our food is right. There are 13 new restaurants in The Glen, and of course, everyone wants to try them. That’s more competition than I’ve ever faced before.”
Favorite food: Hebson doesn’t cook, and he eats frequently at the restaurant, where his favorite item on the menu is the Hackneyburger. “We all like them. My wife sometimes eats them every day, and I eat probably a couple a week.”