Afternoon Delight founder Tom Hackett is retiring. Hackett, who opened the popular cafe in 1978, remains an owner, but business partner Joanne Williams has taken over day-to-day operations.
A large part of Afternoon Delight’s business is catering U-M events, but with the university shut and summer events canceled, “we had to regroup,” Hackett says. “It would be like starting over.” He says he told Williams, “I’m seventy-five. I don’t think I want to do it under those conditions.”
Williams, Afternoon Delight’s co-owner for the past twenty years, took the challenge. She’s expanded online ordering and reopened in-house dining (at 50 percent capacity).
Hackett will continue to advise Williams on the business side, and he won’t vanish entirely. “I love walking in on a weekend and it’s packed and I greet all of the customers who I’ve known for thirty years,” he says. “I may come in on a weekend and say hello.”
