It’s not on the Collis menu board, but everyone in a team jacket seems to know it by name. If you manage to weave through the breakfast line during the morning rush, you may spot clusters of athletes balancing paper bowls brimming with half-melted cheese, runny yolks and English muffins. So what is this mysterious morning meal they have acquired?
The answer is “the Hugh” — it’s messy, hearty and a breakfast staple for many.
According to Kathy Jia ’27, a student on the women’s swimming & diving team, a Hugh consists of two English muffins, eggs, American cheese and either bacon or sausage in a paper bowl. The specific components are customizable — the number of sausages or eggs, for instance, can vary. Her go-to order is a “two egg sausage Hugh,” which contains “two eggs over medium.”
“I usually put everything seasoning on one and smokey sweet on the other,” Jia said, adding that she will also “pair it with a protein smoothie.”
This unique deconstructed sandwich originated years ago, when a member of the men’s hockey team with the last name Hugh came up with the idea of an “open-face” sandwich, according to Hamilton Doster ’27, a member of the women’s ice hockey team.
It’s rare that people stumble upon the Hugh; rather, knowledge of its existence is passed down between students. Doster first heard about the secret sandwich from a teammate, a then-senior, during her freshman fall.
“We went to Collis together, and she basically was like, ‘Oh my gosh, this is what you need to get every time you come here,’” Doster explained. “If I didn’t have an older athlete or teammate telling me about it, I would’ve never known.”
Jia expressed a similar sentiment.
“It’s something that you have to be introduced to by someone who really, really likes it,” she said. “So if you don’t know people who really enjoy it, then it might be hard to know about it in the first place.”
Indeed, the Hugh remains something of an insider item, known mostly within Dartmouth’s athletic community.
“I’ve only seen athletes order it,” Jia noted. “It’s a very … post-morning-practice food. We’re all done [with] practice, we wash up, and then we all go to Collis together … and then we just all get the same thing.”
This timing fits perfectly; as Doster noted, the Hugh is “only available until 10 [a.m.].” According to Collis staff, the grill needs to be cleared and prepared for lunch soon after.
Doster speculated that athletes may need a larger amount of fuel after morning practices.
“When I’m out of season, I eat a lot less,” Doster said. “If I go to Collis and I didn’t just have practice, I’ll probably just get scrambled eggs. Whereas in season, I’m eating a lot more. So that also could play into the athlete part of it — needing a bigger breakfast.”
Sydney Vandenberg ’27, a teammate of Doster’s, suggested that athletes may tend to gravitate towards Collis over other dining options due to it being “way quicker.” Additionally, since they receive many complimentary meals, they do not have to utilize their meal plan as much, leaving more room to spend at Collis, she added.
“Once we start our season, we get a lot of meals provided to us,” Vandenberg explained. “So we get a lot more DBA racked up over the term [which] we could probably spend in Collis, whereas someone that didn’t play a sport might … go [to] Foco to make it cheaper.”
However, there is an element of familiarity to the Collis environment that seems to reinforce the Hugh’s devoted following beyond the meal itself.
“I feel like the people that work on the egg side and Hugh side take a liking to athletes,” Doster said. “They’ll see us wearing our apparel, and ask us our names or how our games went, or what we have coming up.”
Having less of “a personal relationship” with Foco workers may be another reason why some athletes gravitate to Collis, she added.
Despite Doster learning about the Hugh as a “niche tip or trick about Collis,” the sandwich’s existence is no longer as much of a secret from those who know where to look. She noted that the Hugh is listed in the GET app, despite it still being unlisted anywhere in Collis. The Dartmouth Dining Services webpage also references several Hugh variations such as the “Three Egg Hugh Bacon EM Sandwich.” Doster herself “tell[s] everybody about it that doesn’t know.”
However, the Collis menu may contain even more hidden gems, Doster said.
“I’ve also heard there are specific smoothies you can order,” she said. “The names aren’t up on the board, but the people that you’re ordering from will know what it is if you say it.”
Perhaps, that’s part of Collis’ charm: There’s always something new to discover, another unlisted staple waiting to be found, if you know who to ask. So, next time you find yourself in line, skip the menu board, order a Hugh and join in one of Dartmouth’s small, enduring traditions!
