Step into The Huddle in Mission Hills where eggs and potatoes still sizzle on the griddle, customers chat with each other at the counter, and the sweet smell of baked goods wafts through the old-fashioned diner.
The scents and the vibe remain the same, despite the death of longtime owner Ruth Henricks. She died at home surrounded by family on Dec. 31, 2025 at age 81.
Two weeks later, Henricks’ smiling face still greets every customer at The Huddle, but now from posters about her upcoming funeral service.
Ruth Henricks in front of Special Delivery’s storefront. (Photo courtesy of the Henricks family)
Henricks didn’t just run a local business; she drew acclaim for making it the centerpiece of an effort to keep people with AIDS and other chronic illnesses fed, all while maintaining a sense of community that draws people to The Huddle to this day.
“It’s just every time I’d see Ruth, you always knew that she was going to give you her full-on attention, and greeted you with common sense, decency and respect,” said Patty Ducey-Brooks, publisher of the Presidio Sentinel. “She’s one of a kind.”
Other than the prices, not much has changed at The Huddle since Henricks purchased it from her sister-in-law Terry Pierce in 1986.
A sign from their former $2.95 lunch special decorates one wall. It was those low prices that once enticed AIDS patients to frequent the diner when they became too sick to cook. When some of those customers stopped showing up, Henricks knew it meant they were not eating at all, so she began to bring free meals to their homes.
Henricks recruited volunteers to cook the meals inside The Huddle’s kitchen and drivers to take them to a growing client list.
The service, focused on patients who often were ostracized in the early days of the AIDS epidemic, became known as Special Delivery.
“She was doing this at a time when it was unacceptable. So for her to be doing it at all was brave,” said Mike “Big Mike” Phillips, who organized Hillcrest bartenders to donate tips to Special Delivery. “Nobody would even hold their hand, give them a hug, but here Ruth was feeding them.”
At its height, Special Delivery provided three meals a day to 200 people. In her lifetime, Henricks delivered more than a million meals to chronically ill people.
“She was like, ‘We’ve got to get it done.’ People are dying out there all around us. And she was just on the forefront of wanting to make sure that people were fed,” said Nigel Mayer, a former Huddle customer who raised thousands for Special Delivery with Phillips. “She saved a number of lives at that time. She’s definitely an angel.”
Despite flowers and cards commemorating Henricks’ passage, the Cheers-esque atmosphere she nurtured at The Huddle continues. The restaurant’s motto is “Where friends meet friends” — a touch above just knowing everyone’s names.
Anne Rast jokes that she built a home in Mission Hills to be close to The Huddle. Many long-time patrons describe the space in even closer terms than knowing each other’s names: As a family.
“You felt like you’re around people, family members. That’s how they treated you when you were in the restaurant,” said Ducey-Brooks.
On Friday morning, Bob Wear bounced from seat to seat at the counter, talking to the cook, wait staff and fellow customers, as he has for years. Henricks used to tease him that he was the diner’s Walmart greeter.
“She’s a very loving and caring person,” Wear said. “She didn’t want anybody else to go without food.”
Ruth Henricks outside The Huddle in Mission Hills. (Photo courtesy of the Henricks family)
Now it’s Henricks’ daughter, Janet Carranza, who carries on her mother’s legacy of feeding everyone, both at the restaurant and Special Delivery, which is adjacent to the diner.
“She stayed real busy. She cared about people, about everybody. She wanted to help everybody,” Carranza said.
Carranza said the family worked a farm in Illinois, where Henricks was born on April 13, 1944. Henricks, with her husband Bob, fostered children, in addition to her children, Carranza and her brother Daniel, for several years.
Still, she harbored a dream of moving to San Diego.
In a Lambda Archives oral history recorded in 2016, Henricks recounted her belief that she had a greater purpose awaiting her in San Diego, despite not yet knowing what it was. She got a job at McDonald’s, the first time she worked outside the home, to fund her family’s move.
Bob and Ruth Henricks in The Huddle’s kitchen. (Photo courtesy of the Henricks family)
When they arrived in 1979, she started as a trainee waitress at The Huddle, working for tips, her long red hair in a braid. She quickly took on more responsibilities, becoming a full-time waitress, then stepping up to the grill as a cook. Within two years, she co-founded “The Huddle at the Y,” a second location of the restaurant that operated inside the Armed Services YMCA in downtown until April 1989.
Two years later, Henricks started the meal delivery nonprofit that became the destiny she sought in San Diego.
“I can’t promise that everyone in San Diego will be able to eat tonight. But we’re going to try our best to feed the people in our corner of the world,” Henricks said in 2019, when she was named a CNN Hero.
Special Delivery remains the accomplishment Henricks is most known for. She received awards from President Bill Clinton, the state of California and San Diego Pride, among others.
From left to right, Big Mike Phillips, Ruth Henricks, Larry Aston and Nigel Mayer when 100 bartenders gathered at Balboa Park to kick off their fundraiser for Special Delivery in 1996. (Photo courtesy of Lambda Archives)
But that recognition came later. At first, The Huddle lost customers who were afraid they might be infected with HIV from touching the silverware or door handles. As the business suffered, Bob Henricks wondered if his wife should give up her charity work so the entire restaurant would not close, she told Lambda Archives.
Later, she fought for funding to keep the nonprofit open in a time before there was government assistance for AIDS victims.
She also suffered an emotional toll from watching so many friends and clients die. None of that stopped her work.
“We know we’re going to lose them, but we don’t want that to deter our vision for giving them the best possible life that we can in their last days,” Henricks said.
More than a decade later, Henricks went on to found a food pantry in Mission Hills and later San Diego’s first diabetic food pantry. She taught nutrition classes to low-income diabetic patients too.
“She fed a lot of people that would never have gotten fed if it wouldn’t have been her to pick up the skillet and the pan and start cooking for people,” said Phillips, who co-founded Ordinary Miracles to raise money for Special Delivery.
Ruth Henricks rolls dough. The Huddle is known for its cinnamon rolls. (Photo courtesy of the Henricks family)
Outside of The Huddle and Special Delivery, Henricks, despite living in Chula Vista, improved the Mission Hills community.
For years, she led the board of the affordable senior housing complex, Green Manor. Even there, she did not stop feeding people, bringing free lunch to every meeting, Rast recalled.
Henricks planned neighborhood events and sat on other Mission Hills foundation and business boards. She offered up The Huddle’s back room for any community group that needed a meeting space.
“You could always rely on Ruth to help,” said Ducey-Brooks. “She did everything she could to make her place a community center in a way.”
Many recount Henricks’ generosity, caring and customer service, but others also describe her as a smart, calm, collected, driven woman with a head for business.
“Ruth was a selfless, wonderful angel. When Ruth set out to do something, she just did it. She accomplished things,” said Susan McNeil Shreyer, executive director of the Mission Hills Business Improvement District.
Henricks is survived by her husband of 61 years, two children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, nieces and nephews.
Her visitation will be held from 5-9 p.m. Jan. 26 at Glen Abbey Chapel of Roses, 3838 Bonita Road. A funeral will be held at the same location from 12:30-1:30 p.m. Jan. 27 with a committal service to follow at Glen Abbey Memorial Park and Mortuary.
The Mission Hills community is holding a Celebration of Life on April 11 at 3 p.m. at United Church of Christ, 4070 Jackdaw Street.
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