In Print » August 2010 » Features » Retailer Profile

Houston may not be the geographical heart of Texas, but as the fourth largest city in the United States, one could argue that it is the economic pulse of the Lone Star State. On a recent trip to Houston for the IDDBA’s Dairy Deli Bake 2010, I had the good fortune to visit a relatively new store in the Woodlands district of Houston, Hubbell & Hudson Market & Bistro, a beautifully designed, upscale market that left me thinking about how I could convince my wife to move to Houston just so we could shop there. From the holiday-themed display area at the entrance all the way through to the checkout counter, my eyes were dazzled by the food, the genuine enthusiasm of the staff, and the innovative ways in which everything was merchandised. Owner and founder Cary Attar has seemingly left nothing to chance in his quest to build a total shopping and lifestyle experience.

Owner Cary Attar stands proudly in his magnum opus, Hubbell & Hudson. Fishmonger German Alzate offers his customer the catch of the day.

Selling a Lifestyle
One could say it all began in 1880 when Alida Hubbell married Fielding Hudson, except for the fact that Hubbell & Hudson Market & Bistro didn’t actually open until 128 years later. When Cary Attar was planning his retail magnum opus, he decided to name the store for his great, great, great grandparents, for whom he had already named his son, Hudson. As for the store itself, it is the brain child of Attar, based on his years of experience at the helms of some of the country’s best retailers, including stints as general manager of Dean & DeLuca (both Kansas City and Manhattan), CEO (and co-founder) of Fox & Obel in Chicago, and finally, Central Market in Houston.

Attar began his career in the restaurant business, working for a restaurant group where he routinely traveled about the country opening, redesigning, and troubleshooting the company’s properties. It is obvious that he gleaned a great deal through that experience about customer service, how to design a menu, curb appeal and overall design. Opening Hubbell & Hudson then must have been the chance to put everything he had learned from years in the top tier of the food business into his dream store. The store opened in November 2008, one of the worst economic times in our history to think of opening a business, and yet, Hubbell & Hudson has experienced exceptional growth ever since, and they are poised to open another, albeit smaller version of the store.

Hubbell & Hudson is really five different, yet totally integrated businesses. The five parts consist of:

    •  Food Hall, where the staff do the cooking.
    •  Market, where the customer shops and they do the cooking at home.
    •  Catering.
    •  Bistro.
    •  Viking Cooking School.

The first thing you encounter upon entering Hubbell & Hudson is the aforementioned seasonal/holiday-themed display area that consists of big tables and signage hung from the ceiling. Perhaps I should mention the store graphics here. They are all done in-house by a wonderfully talented designer named Jessica Gassen, and tie together wonderfully. The signage is everywhere throughout the store, and the cohesiveness comes from the use of color and charming caricatures that are a bit retro, a bit cartoonish, and are brilliant at evoking images of whatever the signage is supposed to be about. For example, the Father’s Day sign that was up while I was there (soon to be a Fourth of July display so not everything need be traded out) shows Dad with apron and pipe, smiling broadly as he mans the backyard grill. Under the sign was an array of grilling tools, books and other gifts that are sure to appeal to fathers. This special section, along with a thoughtful selection of housewares in another part of the store, is beautifully managed by Kathy Krause who seems to be always planning her next seasonal display.

To the right is the entrance to the H & H Bistro, an elegant and inviting room with dark wood and glass partitions. It also has a wonderful outdoor seating area as well with a fireplace for evening dining. The bistro could easily stand alone as a fine dining establishment and it clearly reflects Attar’s background in the restaurant business. The menu pays homage to the store, and in addition to the many enticing soups, salads, entrees, etc., there is a “fire it up” menu in which patrons can select from H & H’s dry aged beef to be grilled over live oak, and then choose a rub, a sauce, and two sides. The menu also includes bread, pasta, and pastries from the H & H kitchens, a farmstead cheese board, and a thoughtful selection of well over a hundred wines from around the world.

The store is divided very logically and the whole layout is designed to guide one through the various stations of the store, beginning with their sleek coffee and tea counter where I enjoyed a lovely cup of English Breakfast tea that was perfectly brewed. The produce section, while not huge, contained a great deal of local and organic products (Texas watermelons and peaches, for example). The emphasis seemed to be on diversity and quality rather on than on trying to stock every known type of fresh produce. There was certainly a comprehensive selection, but quietly restrained and well cared for and displayed.

The meat counter too could stand alone and it would be considered a first-rate butcher shop. The two main butchers have over 75 years experience cutting meat between them and it showed in the beautiful array of hand-cut meats. Directly next and perpendicular to the meat cases was an upright stainless steel and glass case in which their meats are dry aged for 21 to 28 days. The various cuts inside looked as good as those I’ve seen in some of the finest steak houses in America. In addition to the outstanding beef, they featured house-made sausages, Kobe beef, Berkshire pork and free-range, all-natural chickens and eggs that are raised specifically for them by a local producer.

Next comes the fresh fish and seafood department where, again, quality and not quantity reigned. In other words, one doesn’t go in with a list of fish to purchase. Instead, one goes in and selects from a collection of pristine fresh fish that appear as if they just leapt off the fishing boat. This section was just setting up as I was there but already I could tell it was good, fresh, and knowledgeably merchandised. Not sure what to do with your selection? As with any department, one needs just ask and someone will help you with cooking and serving suggestions.

Wending my through the packaged foods area, it was full of names you would recognize, along with a large array of H & H branded goods including candy, snacks, olive oil, vinegars, pancake mix, sauces, and maple syrup, all smartly packaged and labeled with their distinctive graphic look. They also feature over 400 gluten-free items. Sitting amongst the shelves of packaged goods is the coffee-candy-fruits-and-nuts counter where one can have their coffee roasted to their exact specifications if so desired.

As one emerges from the packaged foods aisles, there looms the cases in which are displayed fresh pasta, breads, and around the corner, cheese and charcuterie. Cheesemonger Terry Costello led me through a stellar selection of artisan cheeses, both domestic and European varieties, as well as their house-smoked charcuterie. At the moment I was there Costello was featuring a lovely Taleggio cheese and Columbus Artisan Finocchiona, a delicious Italian-style fennel and pork sausage made from fresh pork shoulder and aged 90 days.

Patrick Rebiere heads up the entire bakery and pasta making enterprise. A classically trained chef, Rebiere sees to it that all the breads, pastries and fresh pasta are made on premises. Along with executive chef Edelberto Goncalves, they keep the H & H kitchens humming from early in the morning (Rebiere typically comes in around 2 in the morning) to well into the afternoon. In fact, they bake bread four times a day so that no matter what time one is shopping they can have access to the same great fresh bread and pastries.

Hubbell & Hudson does 40 percent of its business in foodservice, and the central market where customers form a line that wends through the store at midday, an enormous variety of freshly made dishes light up the serving line. In a brilliant bit of cross-merchandising, a long, low shelving unit runs parallel to the prepared foods line. On it are dozens of house-packed treats ranging from chocolates and other candy to dried fruits and nuts, specialty salts, and so on, all perfectly positioned to become grab-and-go impulse items (including a charming set of Lego candies that actually work that I couldn’t resist for my grandson).

Jenny Wilkerson runs the Viking Cooking School upstairs. The sleek, spacious teaching kitchen – beautifully outfitted by Viking – looks out over the store through floor to ceiling windows. There is room for both hands on involvement or demonstration teaching. Wilkerson said the school runs day and night, and features classes in everything from corporate team building events to Kids & Teems Cooking Camps to Date Nights, as well as all manner of instruction in ethnic cuisine, American classics, and cooking basics.

Cary Attar had a vision and saw it through to a dazzling store that welcomes shoppers at every turn. He told me he works every day, every single day, and the store is open 365 days a year. “Last year,” said Attar, “we closed Christmas Day and there were a whole lot of customers who would have been in. This year we’re staying open. We might not fully set up the meat and seafood departments – just pre-wrapped, grab and go things – but we’ll be open.”

He’s also busy planning new innovations, such as a “shop & sip” program wherein customers can select from 10 wines out of their extensive collection and can carry them about as they shop. This in turn could lead them into the wine department or the extraordinary walk-through beer cooler featuring hundreds of beer brands.

As beautiful as the store design is, it is simple and unobtrusive to the main attraction – the food and housewares. Stainless steel, white subway tiles, and wood are the materials used so as to allow the food and other merchandise to take center stage. As Attar is quick to point out, “we’re not a food store, we’re a lifestyle store.” I say he excels at both, but in either case, customer service is key to the success of any upscale operation such as this one, and in that respect H&H gets an A plus. From the genuinely friendly and eager faces of the staff – from the bakers all the way through to the cashiers – to their personal shopping feature, the customer is king, or queen. Best of all, it never seems false or forced. Everyone seems to hold the customer experience as a paragon, and the customers I saw looked very happy to be shopping there indeed.

What a fortuitous encounter for me to visit H&H, considering it was the result of my being in Houston anyway. Hubbell & Hudson epitomizes the modern gourmet food store – great but simple design, great signage, a thoughtful selection of merchandise, an abundance of house-made goods, and above all, great customer service. My only criticism is that Houston is thousand and a half-mile distance from where I live so I can only hope that if they ever decide to branch out of Texas, that a Hubbell & Hudson will one day open near me.