For five decades, people have celebrated birthdays, youth sports and family dinners at Kennewick’s Hubby’s Pizza, where the only significant changes have been the prices and one brick wall – but more on that later.

Promoted as “halfway between the bridges,” the restaurant at 346 W. Columbia Drive opened 50 years ago this December, a milestone few locally-owned restaurants can claim.

Current owners Shane and Kelly O’Leary have been stewards of the business for the past decade, but their connection to Hubby’s goes back much further.

“We both worked here when we were kids,” said Kelly O’Leary, who was an employee under the original owners, Pat and Ed Gilbert. “We had always told Pat and Ed that if anybody in their family didn’t want to take it over, we wanted to be next in line.”

They got that call when the Gilbert’s son, Monty, decided to retire from the family business.

“He just said, ‘Do you want to get Hubby’s?’” said O’Leary, who jumped at the opportunity.

“It’s just an icon,” she said. “We have generations who still come in. People tell us, ‘My parents brought me here when I was a kid, and now I’m bringing my kids and grandkids.’”

Open every day at 11 a.m., the restaurant offers familiarity that is important to both the customers and owners. Many of the original features of Hubby’s remain, from the wooden tables and benches in the dining room to the outdoor play area.

The O’Learys updated lighting fixtures and flooring when they took over, but that was about it.

A giant, decorative 55-pound pizza knife still hangs on the wall, and the arcade favors old-school games, like an Elvis-themed pinball machine. The menu has remained remarkably unchanged as well. 

“To this day, we are still using the exact same recipes,” O’Leary said. “The pizzas are still the way they were,” including the thin crust Hubby’s customers have come to know.

Fan favorites

Some fan favorites include titles named for the Gilbert family, like Monty’s Mirage (pepperoni, sausage, pineapple) and Easy Ed’s Enticer (Canadian style bacon, beef, tomatoes).

O’Leary said she often orders a taco pizza called Amigo’s Delight and the chicken fajita pizza, which she prefers with white sauce, a customization allowed at no extra charge.

Longtime customers still request a specialty pizza that’s now relegated to the secret menu. “People will come in and say, ‘I want the Shrimp Boat,’” said O’Leary, referring to the shrimp, mushroom and black olive combo.

Hubby’s might be the only local pizza place that has smoked oysters on the menu, sold by the can as toppings.

While Hubby’s prices have adjusted with inflation, “we still put a lot of toppings on our pizzas,” O’Leary said. “A lot of places have scaled back. We have not.”

Also known for its sandwiches, the most expensive pizza offered is a 12-topping Hubby’s Down Under Wonder Blunder, featuring pepperoni, tomatoes, beef, black olives, sausage, Canadian bacon, mushrooms, green peppers, onions, pineapple, chopped bacon and shrimp. A small will set you back about $25, a large about $40.

Beverages are still offered by the pitcher, and vino varieties like blush, burgundy and Chablis are poured alongside newer zero-proof beers.

The big knife

With windows offering a glimpse into the pizza-making station, one of Hubby’s most recognizable traditions is how its pizzas are cut.

O’Leary said the restaurant still uses a large knife that’s “not sharp,” explaining that “it’s the weight that cuts it.”

The restaurant has weathered its share of challenges over the years, including two break-ins where the ATM was the sole target.

O’Leary said the first was successful. “It was sitting here bolted to the floor and the guy broke the glass during a bad winter, pulled it out, pushed it across the street and got it into the backseat of the car, but the door wouldn’t shut because it was too long. So, he drove down the road with the back door open.”

The second ATM heist is where the brick wall comes in. Burglars drove a car through the north-facing brick wall but ultimately failed in their attempt to take the ATM. Missing the gas fireplace by just inches, the damage required an entire rebuild using contemporary, flat brickwork rather than the rounded style used in the original build.

It’s for those reasons Hubby’s no longer houses an ATM, a status proudly displayed on its logo painted on the repaired exterior wall: “Hubby’s Pizza, est. 1976, No ATM.”

Changing customer habits

Since owning the restaurant, O’Leary has noticed how the pandemic reshaped customer habits. While Hubby’s once thrived on packed dining rooms, takeout now accounts for a much larger share of business.

“It’s a little disheartening,” she said. “But people are still eating the pizzas. They’re just not eating them in the dining room.”

Few people have witnessed that evolution more closely than longtime employee Molly Antone, who has worked at Hubby’s for more than 20 years.

Setting up the “super” salad bar for the day, Antone credits her longevity to the “family environment.”

“They’ve always cared about their employees,” she said.

Over the years, Antone has watched generations cycle through the restaurant.

“Customers will come up to the counter and say, ‘Oh, I remember you,’” Antone said. “They’ll tell me they used to come here with their baseball team, and now they’re bringing their own kids.”

That multigenerational connection is exactly what O’Leary hopes will carry Hubby’s into its next chapter.

“Our tradition will be that our kids will take it over; keep it here, keep rolling pizzas out the door,” she said.

To celebrate the restaurant’s 50th anniversary, Hubby’s is offering a monthlong series of specials and weekly prize drawings in November.

“To me, it’s amazing,” O’Leary said. “I’m tickled to death for our 50th anniversary.”

After generations of customers and countless pizzas, one piece of Hubby’s history remains unsolved. While O’Leary can trace the restaurant’s ownership back to the Gilberts, she still can’t explain how the restaurant got its name.

“Everybody asks me how they came up with it, and I honestly do not know,” she said. Even after asking former owner, Monty Gilbert, O’Leary said: “Nobody has ever said.”

Hubby’s Pizza: 346 W. Columbia Drive, Kennewick, 509-586-2340, hubbyspizza.com.