A Tacoma chef stays grounded during pandemic by cooking free meals for restaurant workers

Every Thursday, Derek Bray transforms local ingredients into a well-rounded dish, but instead of delivering a thoughtful plate to a diner at the long communal table that anchors his restaurant, he puts this food in a box.

The chef-owner of The Table in Tacoma’s Sixth Avenue business district then offers these boxed meals for free to unemployed restaurant workers, no questions asked.

Joined by his sommelier Trevor Hamilton and occasionally another cook — last week, Stephen Gangl was in the back helping out — Bray has served 60 to 70 meals each week since mid-March. He estimated that 30 to 40 people have become “regulars.”

“It was the right choice to be able to offer people something that we had made,” he told The News Tribune. “We just kind of wanted to be able to give people a grounded sense of community that we’re still here, we’re still around. If you are stuck at home or jobless, or you’re used to going out and at least, like, seeing people, you can walk by. Get a free meal, get a hello.”

He knew that many of The Table’s neighboring businesses on Sixth Avenue would close, as The Red Hot, O’Malley’s, Jazzbones and Bluebeard Coffee have. Many of the strip’s restaurants remain open for takeout, but with limited staff.

“I really just thought about our community, all the other restaurant workers on the Ave and bartenders that we’re friends with, that we have a relationship with, who my servers go out and see when we get off of work,” he said.

Some have kids, and some have spouses who also work in restaurants and have also lost their jobs.

On top of losing income, they also have lost interactions, and these free meals are a way to nurture that “spirit of hospitality.”

Some of Bray’s staff show up on Thursdays to volunteer for that reason.

“Part of the joy of this job — I promise it’s not the 60 hours a week — it’s much more the interaction with people and kind of that rhythm of a good night, and that enjoyment of getting through a busy part of service,” said Bray.

Packing a predetermined number of boxes fails to deliver the same thrill.

That’s true for Cozell Wilson, who has picked up an industry meal a few times since he was laid off from a Seattle restaurant and a music venue. His girlfriend lives in Tacoma, where he has been staying.

“It sucks not having a job,” he said, but “things like this really help.”

The downtime has yielded room for personal projects previously on the back burner, but free time is no substitute for a job, he said — and not just because of the money. He also misses the camaraderie of a restaurant and feeling the tacit bond among fellow servers, bartenders, cooks and dishwashers.

“It feels good to be able to connect with your service industry people,” continued Wilson. “They appreciate me, I appreciate them. It’s like a free shot at the bar.”

He leaves a generous tip, even though the food is technically free.

Bray said local donors have helped make this offer possible.

THE TABLE LOOKS FORWARD

The industry meals bring Bray and company into the restaurant, so he has decided to start selling to the public on Thursday nights, too. He’s calling it the “Between the Bun” series, a $16 burger or sandwich that will let him experiment in the kitchen. First up: Southern fried chicken with peanut slaw, pimento cheese and hot honey for $15.

The Table has been selling a limited number of takeout meals every Wednesday. A composed plate of a protein and a side, plus a bottle of wine, goes for $25.

The restaurant also held a pop-up wine sale one Friday evening and since has started a casual wine club.

When deciding how to handle the closure in March, regular takeout from the seasonally focused restaurant just didn’t make sense.

“For us to go into planning and prep, I don’t think we would see the response,” said Bray. No amount of takeout diners can compensate for the loss of that in-person experience.

The restaurant also is in a “fortunate position” thanks to a fruitful winter and thoughtful foresight of the coming storm. Bray began cutting back on inventory in early March, before Gov. Jay Inslee’s shutdown order, though he felt “almost uncomfortable from a moral standpoint” staying open that weekend.

Now, offering service one or two days weeks keeps waste low and loyal customers engaged.

“It makes the most sense in the means of staying on people’s radar,” said Bray. “That way they can both feel like they’re supporting us but still get a treat every once in a while.”

As for working in a “weirdly empty” restaurant, “It feels not like what we’re meant to be doing.”

Nonetheless, he is grateful for the landlord, who after brief hesitation, cut the rent to about a quarter of the normal rate. Full payments in March, April and May without standard revenue would have cost them “pretty much all of our working capital.”

The Table also sold about $2,000 worth of gift cards in the first couple of weeks, which Bray dispersed among his staff: “not a lot but it’s better than nothing.” That each of his employees was able to file for unemployment put him, as an employer, at ease.

“If they weren’t getting any money, that takes care of my personal situation, but it doesn’t take care of their situation at all,” he said, praising the system as intended to be a short-term solution.

Though he hopes to bring his full staff back to work when restaurants can reopen their dining rooms, that might not happen until June or July, and even then, he expects social distancing to figure into the plan.

To that end, he and Hamilton are staying fluid, developing several approaches to tackle whatever those rules might be and how long they will last.

“We love the community that we’ve built on Sixth Ave and the culture that we have around the restaurant,” said Bray. “I think to try to do something different, if we don’t absolutely have to, would be kind of, I don’t know ... We would have to do something different enough that everyone wouldn’t miss what it was.”

What matters most is staying true to what The Table was and still is.

THE TABLE

▪ 2715 6th Ave., Tacoma, 253-327-1862, thetabletacoma.com

▪ Check the restaurant’s Instagram for updates on Wednesday dinners (order early on Tuesday), Thursday sandwich specials, Friday wine club and future service days

This story was originally published April 28, 2020 at 5:00 AM.