Nancy Pugh and Rob Evans outside Duckfat Frites Shack on Washington Avenue in Portland. Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Staff Photographer Newly retired Portland restaurateurs Rob Evans and Nancy Pugh had a profound impact on Portland’s dining scene over the 24 years they were in business here. Since first meeting 39 years ago, the couple learned fundamental lessons about the hospitality industry at venues around the country before buying (the now defunct) Hugo’s in 2000 and helping put Portland on America’s culinary map.
Evans was named among the country’s best new chefs in 2004 by Food & Wine magazine. The couple then opened Duckfat just down Middle Street in 2005, and married in 2007. Evans won a James Beard award for Best Chef: Northeast in 2009 and appeared on the cooking show “Chopped” in 2011, winning $10,000 (he also made it to the final round on “Chopped Champions” in 2013).
Evans and Pugh sold Hugo’s to a team of their employees in 2012. Pugh oversaw business and front-of-house operations at Hugo’s and the Duckfat restaurants, including Duckfat Frites Shack, which opened on Washington Avenue in 2016. 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 cha.