Business of the Year
Since 2003, the Hillsborough Chamber of Commerce awards the Business of the Year to deserving business in the Hillsborough area.The primary purpose of this award is to recognize an area business for their contribution to our community. The Business of the Year is a current member of the Hillsborough Chamber of Commerce in good standing; shows a dedication to making our community a better place by contributing to the community in some way; and possesses a reputation of honesty and integrity.
TOOKY MILLS PUB: 2011 BUSINESS OF THE YEAR
TOOKY MILLS PUB: 2011 BUSINESS OF THE YEAR
Tooky Mills Pub is such a fixture in downtown Hillsborough that it seems like it’s been there forever. There isn't anyone here who hasn’t met with friends at the bar, or maybe done a little business over lunch, or treated the family for a fun night out together and a great meal. Tooky Mills has just become part of us! The year was 1998. Don and Jeanne Knapton were pulling together their plans to start up a new downtown restaurant, and looking for someone to run it, and someone introduced them to a talented young chef by the name of Sean Burt. Sean had grown up in Henniker, and he’d earned a degree in business management. He’d cooked locally and as far away as Arizona, and he’d come back to the area to pursue his dream of opening his own restaurant.
It turns out that Don Knapton had had a benefactor who helped him get started in the insurance business as a young man, and Don took the opportunity to pay that favor forward by making Sean’s dream a reality.
When Don showed Sean the plans for the new restaurant, Sean knew that the kitchen layout wouldn’t accommodate preparation of the good food he wanted to put out. Sean drew up a plan for a workable kitchen and made sure the basement was finished so there would be adequate room for storage space and room for preparing large amounts of food. Tooky Mills Pub opened in 1999 with Sean Burt as the owner and chef, and the rest is history.
The Chamber honors Tooky Mills Pub and Sean Burt for generous contributions to the community and a deep-rooted sense of civic responsibility. Sean is a regular in the local schools, lending his time and expertise to cooking with students, catering dinners for family nights and working with students to show them how to develop business plans with realistic goals.
The Chamber is especially grateful for Tooky Mills’ part in making Schnitzelfest successful for nine consecutive years. Each year, a few days before the Chamber’s German food festival at the end of September, a big load of pork loins is delivered to Tooky Mills Pub. That’s where it is transformed into the schnitzel that draws well over a thousand people to Hillsborough from EVERYWHERE! The effort of cutting, trimming and pounding the pork cutlets requires dozens of man-hours, and over nine years, that adds up to literally hundreds of hours given to make this big community event possible.
Past Businesses of the Year
Past Businesses of the Year
2010 Livingston's Auto Repair and Arctic Cat
2009 Farmsteads of New England
2008: Knapton, Reade & Woods Agency,
2007: TDS
2006: Hillsboro Ford
2005: Bailey Home Improvement
2004: Osram Sylvania
2003: Mamakating Electric