A Tale of Two Breakfast Clubs

When a couple gets divorced, friends often get divvied up. But when that couple owns a pair of restaurants, the split is even more complicated.

David Hakes opened the first Breakfast Club in Fort Collins in 1990. The diner is reminiscent of a country kitchen, with mahogany tabletops, kitschy decor all over the walls, and career servers who say, “Here you go, hon. Can I fill up your coffee?” It’s a place filled with regulars getting the housemade pork green chile-smothered breakfast burritos, sausage gravy biscuits, crispy hash browns and Dave’s famous lunch special, beef stroganoff.

In 2000, Hakes and his then-wife, Angela, took over an old Chinese restaurant in Loveland and opened a second Breakfast Club. It was a carbon copy of the first, with almost identical decor and menu items, and many of the waitstaff worked at both locations.

But by 2010, the marriage between David and Angela had deteriorated. The ensuing divorce was public, messy and painful. In the split, David kept the Fort Collins Breakfast Club and Angela got the Loveland location, while guests and employees picked sides. For nearly a decade, the two Breakfast Clubs carried on with the same name, similar menus and a fair share of angst directed at each other.

In October 2022, the tension broke when another couple, Dakota and Michelle Soifer, purchased the Loveland location. “I had heard, like, ‘Oh no, we’re not going to dine there because we’re team husband, or we’re not going to dine there because we’re team wife,” Dakota recalls of the rivalry.
The Soifers have been staples in the Boulder dining scene for years. Dakota got the cooking bug while studying architecture at the University of Colorado Boulder. After graduation, he moved to San Francisco to work at Zuni Cafe and Julia’s Kitchen before returning to Boulder, where he cooked at the Kitchen before opening his own eatery, Cafe Aion, in 2010.

Michelle also started in the hospitality industry during college, working front-of-the-house jobs before moving to Boulder, meeting Dakota and joining Cafe Aion. The refined Spanish tapas restaurant went on to win numerous national awards in Bon Appétit and Esquire. Dakota also won Food Network’s Cutthroat Kitchen.

Now, Dakota says, “We have three kids who enjoy going rock climbing and camping and spending time at home. I still had a real passion for cooking and love to cook at home, and during COVID, we obviously had a lot of time to consider, ‘What am I doing with my life?’”

During the pandemic, the Soifers' landlord listed Cafe Aion's building for sale for $10 million. The couple tried to raise capital and purchase the building themselves. The price tag was too high, but the experience motivated them to establish more stability and security by taking on a restaurant where they could own the real estate.

When a restaurant broker showed them the Loveland Breakfast Club, they fell in love. “We were just like, ‘Wow, this place is awesome!’” Dakota remembers. “I’ve worked in restaurants for 25 years, and it was more on the fine-dining side. So I was clueless to this whole world of people getting up in the morning and getting breakfast. ... I just never went out to breakfast — it wasn’t even on my radar — and we were like, ‘Holy cow, this place cranks, people love going out to breakfast!’”
After buying the place, the Soifers changed very little. Dakota says it took a lot of restraint, but they realized they shouldn’t fix what isn’t broken. “And in doing so, we didn’t have any staff turnover, and our regulars stayed regulars. And people just were very thankful and appreciative that something they had appreciated so long stayed a family-owned business,” Dakota notes. “And there’s not, like, avocado toast and French toast samplers on the menu, but it’s the same quality scratch-made food that people want.”

The Soifers only found out about the second Breakfast Club in Fort Collins after they purchased the Loveland location. David's ex-wife, Angela, hadn’t mentioned it, the restaurant broker hadn’t mentioned it, and because of the divorce, all the legal ties between the two restaurants had been severed.

But customers in Loveland started telling the Soifers they were glad the location was now owned by a neutral party so they could once again visit without feeling like they were taking sides.

Buoyed by the success of the Loveland location, Michelle decided to write a letter to David, inquiring whether he was also ready to retire and sell. It turned out that he was, so in April, the Soifers took ownership of the Fort Collins Breakfast Club.

“It was nice to be in a position where we are a neutral party, and now they’re back under family ownership," Dakota says. "It's a lot of fun to see customers feel like the restrictions have been lifted; it’s safe to go to either one. Even employees, who before were maybe nervous about working at either one or picking up a shift, or dining with their families at one or the other, they’re like, ‘Oh, okay. It’s okay to do it.’”

The reconciliation of the Breakfast Clubs has also brought David some closure. He hadn't stepped foot inside the Loveland outpost in over a decade. A few months after the deal closed, “he came in and ate in Loveland, and almost with a tear in his eye, said it was so nice to be able to come in,” Dakota says. “It’s maybe a little cheesy, it sounds cheesy to say, but it’s kind of a special thing to bring the healing full circle.”

Loveland Breakfast Club is located at 1451 North Boise Avenue and is open from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. daily. For more information, visit lovelandbreakfastclub.com.

The Breakfast Club in Fort Collins is located at 121 West Monroe Drive and is open from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 7 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Sunday. For more information, visit breakfastclubfc.com.