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SBA Number:08

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Vermont’s First Patriot Express Loan Revitalizes Lyndonville Restaurant

An engaging fellow with a sense of humor, Rick Hanks discovered his serious side during a recent Army National Guard deployment.  While facing the uncertainties of a soldier’s life in Iraq, Hanks worried about the well-being of his business back in Lyndonville, Vermont.  Just days before leaving for Iraq, he’d made a special trip home to purchase an additional 1% interest in Hi-Boy Family Restaurant, bringing his ownership share to 51%.  Hoping for the best, he left his father, Rick Hanks, Sr., and his sister, Cathy Liberty, in charge of general operations and shipped out.

It was a good plan but while he was busy running reconnaissance over Ramadi, he learned his partner had sold the remaining 49% to someone else.  Coming home to a different business partner was worrisome at best, but Hanks was also concerned about things that keep a restaurant going strong, like excellent customer service, balanced food inventories, upkeep and maintenance, etc. 

Hanks’ deployment lasted last a year and a half.  When he returned home, he made a quick survey of the restaurant and realized it needed attention.  He didn’t have the money to make improvements but he’d heard some talk about good loans for veterans and wondered if it might be true.  “Everything out there says ‘support your veterans’ and I wanted to see if somebody was actually doing that or was it all just pretend,” Hanks said. 

Hanks contacted a local bank and received information on the U.S. Small Business Administration’s (SBA) Express Loan Program.  Ironically, the following day the bank received a bulletin announcing the SBA Patriot Express Loan Initiative.  Specifically designed for veterans, Patriot Express loans were offering enhanced guarantee and interest rate characteristics. 

The bank immediately contacted Hanks, and a loan was quickly approved. “Rick Hanks had been a good business man, and we saw it as a great opportunity for him,” said Tom Robinson, Vice President, Commercial Banking, Passumpsic Savings Bank.   

He was the first veteran in the state of Vermont to receive a Patriot Express loan, and Passumpsic Savings Bank was the first to approve it. 

With the loan money, Hanks slowly but surely re-configured the look of Hi-Boy Family Restaurant.  He outfitted the restaurant with new flooring, carpeting, kitchen tile, and cleaned and upgraded all the kitchen equipment.  He sent the wooden dining tables through a planer and applied fresh coats of urethane to each one. 

The changes have made a difference.  “Before I left for Iraq, we were increasing business by 10 to 20 percent every year,” Hanks said.  “It’s taken some time, but we’re getting things back to the way they were.” 

Hi-Boy, a family-style restaurant with a maximum seating capacity of 66, operates with a staff of 4 full-time and 14 part-time employees, including Hanks’ sister, who handles bookkeeping, and his mother, who receives her pay in what she calls “free meals.” 

Working as a team and open daily, the Hi-Boy staff prepares and serves a diverse menu of fried chicken, pasta, calzones, pizza, sandwiches, wraps, salads, side dishes, burgers, freshly-prepared soup and daily specials like shepard’s pie, meatloaf, tuna/noodle casserole and, soon, prime rib. 

The restaurant offers sit-down dining, drive-through carry-out, catering services and home delivery (within a five-mile radius and farther for larger orders). 

Hanks’ interest in food preparation began in 1987 when a U.S. Army recruiter told him he could go to Hawaii and showed him a picture of smiling military cooks.  It must have been an impressive picture, because Hanks enlisted for the package deal:  cook training, the college fund, and Hawaii.  Army-trained and certified as a cook, Hanks wound up in Hawaii as predicted.    “But there wasn’t a lot of smiling as a cook in the military,” Hanks said with a laugh.  “We worked anywhere from 10 to 16 hours a day, and we didn’t get weekends off like everybody else.” 

In 1992, after completing four years of active military duty in the U.S. Army, Hanks enlisted in the U.S. Army National Guard and went to work as a Hi-Boy fry cook.  Under the mentorship of former owner, Ashley Gray, Hanks rounded out his culinary education and in 2001, purchased 50% ownership interest in the restaurant. 

Asked if he has advice for would-be restaurateurs, Hanks enthusiastically said, “Be prepared to work.”  His goal?  “I’d like our restaurant to be the busiest in town,” he said.  With success on his doorstep and tentative plans for future expansion, Hanks would appear to be taking his own advice.  # # #