Ruth Thompson was teaching cooking classes to adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities in McKinney in 2008 when the idea started taking shape. Not a program. Not a workshop. A real restaurant, with real jobs, real wages, and real customers who came because the food was good. It took four years to build the model and three more to open the first location. Thirteen years after those first cooking classes, Hugs Cafe opened its Dallas doors on December 8, 2025, and the people who work there will tell you exactly what it means to them.
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