The story of Egg Harbor starts with Jack and Paula Wright, college sweethearts from Northwestern, where Jack majored in Business and Paula in Music. Their shared passion for early mornings and breakfast led them to a unique opportunity when Paula discovered an ad in the Chicago Tribune. It was from Tom, a man with a vision for a breakfast/lunch concept called “The Good Egg”. Both Jack and Paula were quite intrigued by the idea of investing in one of their great passions, the breakfast business In 1984, they partnered with him, bringing together Tom’s expertise and the Wrights' financial backing, with aspirations of opening more restaurants, should they succeed.

Jack, already a successful entrepreneur, envisioned the potential of Egg Harbor. Enlisting the help of their daughter Aimee and her husband Mike, who were based in Oregon, he charted a plan for the brand.

These famous words that Jack proclaimed at that moment, were; “If you do this with me, I will tell you it will be long hours, all weekends and holidays, except for Christmas and Thanksgiving, sometimes 7 days a week as we develop the first restaurant into a success, and I can’t afford to pay you much, as the history of these breakfast / lunch restaurants suggests that we will finally breakeven after the first 6 months, making a profit typically after a year or so in business.  But, if this works, you would be on the ground floor of a very exciting business venture, and would be part of the founding family that created this awesome concept here in Chicago.”  

Mike and Aimee fully embraced the venture, even training in California and driving a U-Haul filled with booths, tables and more across the country to set up the first location in Hinsdale, IL. The seed that began as a love of going out to breakfast had become a living, growing business.

Mike became the operations specialist, and Aimee took on more of the administration challenges as the business grew.  Mike started reading and listening to leadership and psychology books to learn the imperatives of effective leadership as the business expanded.  The pursuit of excellent leadership became a driving force in the organization and became a major focus in HAMCO (Harbor Management Corporation). Today, Egg Harbor Café, is still family owned across 3 generations. Egg Harbor Cafe has since partnered with other organizations as we continue to celebrate kindness. We continue to expand across Wisconsin, Illinois, and Georgia, and continue to live out our passion of improving lives, one encounter at a time.