Hap’s Burgers & Taps is back and Mercer Islanders are ecstatic.

The beloved eatery — which was originally named Old 76 — initially fired up its grill in 2019 and was shuttered by its previous owners, The Homegrown Group, on Sept. 15 of this year due to, in part, rising labor costs and food prices.

Enter the Conscious Hospitality Group (CHG), and less than a month later — on Oct. 10 — Hap’s was back in business and serving up its usual lineup of burgers, fries, shakes and beer made with organic produce, local grass-fed and pasture-raised beef, and organic sourdough sourced from Pacific Northwest vendors, according to a press release.

Co-founded by Mercer Island natives Norman Wu and Danny Brawer, CHG purchased Hap’s from Homegrown and the local dining tradition continues. Health, sustainability and community stand at the forefront of the Hap’s culinary mission that is sprinkled with crucial Island connectivity.

One Facebook poster described Hap’s as a “yummy burger place on (the) island”; another local said, “So glad you will be open again”; and one parent noted that, “This restaurant is the life force of my toddler.”

Wu and Brawer, whose CHG has produced the ultra-popular Just Poké and other top-notch brands, may live in Bellevue nowadays, but their Island ties remain strong.

Both guys have family members and copious friends residing on the Island and Wu plays basketball locally three times a week. Wu said they’re excited to be giving back to their hometown by continuing the Hap’s journey and delivering the eatery’s high-quality burgers and other items.

“I think it’s important as you build any kind of business, but especially in the hospitality food space, to be connected with your local community. For us, I think it’s just super exciting because at the end of the day, we’re from Mercer Island,” Wu said.

The quick turn-around in reopening Hap’s was to attempt to save as many of the employees’ jobs as possible, Wu said.

“We pretty much kept the entire leadership team and a lot of the employees. I think that’s something that we were excited about, too. I think, one, they had great people, but two, it’s just exciting to maintain that for people,” he said.

Mercer Island resident Jared Reister began working at Hap’s six months ago and is thankful to retain his spot behind the counter and serving hungry and pleased customers. He enjoys working with the Hap’s crew and said the owners are supportive and flexible.

Customers’ emotions flipped from September to October — just like a burger patty on the piping grill.

“When we were going into the closing, everybody was so sad and so distraught that we were closing. Now that we’re coming back, everybody is finding out — they’re getting (excited). It’s a very local necessity, almost. Everybody loves it. So, people have been coming in saying how happy they are that we are back open,” said a smiling Reister.

The healthy culinary approach that Hap’s brings to the table matched with CHG’s ethos in the food realm, said Wu, and he and Brawer connected with Homegrown CEO and friend Brad Gillis and conversed about a sale to keep Hap’s on the Island menu.

“We have so many friends and family on the Island still, and we talked to a bunch of people, and they’re like, ‘Yeah, we love Hap’s and we’ll be sad to see it go,” he said.

Wu and Brawer built a solid relationship with the Hap’s crew when they parked their Just Poké truck on the Hap’s site at 2411 76th Ave. SE for about a year during Covid. And now they own Hap’s, which is named after one of the members of the Lightfoot family that played an “integral role in the growth and development of Mercer Island,” reads the press release.

CHG’s owners are embracing the past and present of Hap’s, but are also eyeing the future of their new acquisition.

“We still want to keep the soul of the business the same, but you know, I think for us, like in our group in general, we’re always looking to see what we can do to improve on the experience or the food or whatever. So I think there will be some tweaks coming in the near future,” Wu said.

The Reporter reached out to a representative for Homegrown, but didn’t receive a response from Homegrown at press time. In September, The Homegrown Group shuttered 10 of its 12 Seattle- and Eastside-area restaurants for the same reasons as the Hap’s closure.