Hungry Fox Restaurant

The space is limited, but the demand is high at Hungry Fox.

Hidden between a commercial printer store and a bank on East Broadway, Hungry Fox Restaurant still shines as a Tucson treasure six decades after it opened.

As Hungry Fox โ€” where Tucson legend Sam Fox cut his teeth before launching his successful restaurant empireย โ€” celebrates its milestone anniversary, its owners are planning to open a second location by yearโ€™s end.

โ€œWe are currently looking for a new location,โ€ said Billy Rahn, who has owned the restaurant with his wife, Cassie, since 2023. โ€œWe will try to recreate this atmosphere, this family-oriented type restaurant. That is our goal by the end of the year.โ€

A second location might make it easier to find a seat at the original spot at 4637 E. Broadway. With only word-of-mouth as advertising, the diner, which serves breakfast and lunch, has a constant flow of regulars enjoying coffee, homemade cinnamon rolls and Sonoran eggs Benedict. Some regulars come twice a day.

Aaron and Toni Fox, Tucson native Sam Foxโ€™s parents, opened The Hungry Fox in 1964.

Toni and Aaron Fox celebrating a birthday at the Hungry Fox restaurant with a giant fox cheesecake.

โ€œVery fine memories, I love to see that it is still open,โ€ said Fox, who spent part of his childhood helping at the restaurant alongside his parents. โ€œIt definitely felt like home. We had our birthdays there, our dinners and brunches โ€ฆ It was like one giant family.โ€

It was inside that building, its walls decorated with hand-painted porcelain plates that have stood the test of time, that Fox grew to love the restaurant industry and the hard work it entailed.

โ€œMy work ethic was rooted in seeing how my parents lived their lives and how hard they worked,โ€ said Fox, whose Fox Restaurant Concepts includes the classic American-style Culinary Dropout, the pizza and rotisserie chicken concept Doughbird and the healthy-leaning Flower Child. โ€œJust by being around my parents and hard work all the time, it was something which just became who I am.โ€

Restaurant developer Sam Fox, owner of Flower Child, speaks to an employee.

The Rahns have tried to maintain the warm atmosphere that Sam Fox remembers.

โ€œItโ€™s kind of like an extended family that we are trying to build here,โ€ Billy Rahn said. โ€œAll of my team loves to sit and talk with the guests, and we want them to feel at home and have those conversations.โ€

Rahn said the couple, out of respect for the restaurantโ€™s history, didnโ€™t make any changes in the dining area.

โ€œTo the customers eyesight, the only change we made is that we reprinted the menus, but we didnโ€™t take anything off of it. Everything is still on,โ€ he said.

The menu includes Sam Foxโ€™s childhood favorite: the egg yolk omelet, and the Fox or the Cowboy omelets, as well as the fan-favorite Sonoran eggs Benedict, which comes with chorizo and a chipotle Hollandaise-topped English muffin.

As Hungry Fox Restaurant celebrates 60 years, the owners are on the hunt for a second Tucson location.ย 

The Hungry Fox also serves pancakes, stuffed breakfast burritos, biscuits with thick gravy and other treats, starting at 6 a.m. on weekdays, 6:30 a.m. on weekends. The restaurant closes at 2 p.m. daily.

Dennis Lumley has been a Hungry Fox regular for the past five years.

โ€œWe have been here two or three times a week,โ€ said Lumley, who comes with his wife, Barbara. โ€œSometimes I wish they had dinners, as well, but Iโ€™m glad they donโ€™t, because then I would be huge.โ€

On a recent Monday morning, despite the rush, a waitress shared a warm hug with the Lumleys before taking their order at their table framed by hand-sewed curtains.

โ€˜โ€˜The nice thing is, we are regulars, but you canโ€™t tell the way they treat somebody as if they are a regular or not. It is like a family,โ€ Lumley reflected.

Rahn said he and his wife hope to bring that same sense to a second location, which also will help them keep up with the demand for the restaurant.

โ€œEvery weekend, we have a 40-minute wait. It is because we are the size that we are and we cannot make it any bigger. The need is there, the want is there, thatโ€™s why we want to do it,โ€ he said.


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Arizona Sonoran News is a news service of the University of Arizona School of Journalism.