The Maine Sunday Telegram has published an interview with Rob Evans and Nancy Pugh, the recently retired former owners of Hugo’s and founders of Duckfat.
This spring, Evans, 60, and Pugh, 57, sold the Duckfat properties and left restaurant life behind to focus on building a home on their property in western York County. We sat down with the couple recently to talk about how they got their starts in the industry, how working in some of the country’s most elite restaurants prepared Evans for Hugo’s, the challenges facing married restaurateurs, and what Portland’s restaurant scene might look like in the years to come.
Evans and Pugh moved to Portland and took over Hugo’s in 2000 and for nearly a quarter of a century were central figures in the Portland restaurant community. The couple launched Duckfat in 2005 and Duckfat Frites Shack on Washington Ave in 2018. Evans was a Food & Wine Best New Chef in 2004, and he won a James Beard award in the Best Chef North East category in 2009. They sold Duckfat and the Frites Shack and retired in Late April.