Olympia area restaurants bond to brighten holidays for laid-off workers

It’s yet another sign of a COVID-19 Christmas: On the rare occasion that you enter a restaurant during the holiday season, chances are that if you see a tree the ornaments are gift tags inscribed with the wishes of people who work in that beleaguered industry.

The trees are part of the Olympia Oyster House’s Great Restaurant Adoption Challenge, in which local restaurants are spreading holiday cheer by “adopting” the employees — many of whom have been laid off — of other restaurants.

Customers who want to help can choose a tag and either buy gifts or donate money.

“What I love is that the restaurant community is so supportive,” said Dannielle Knutson, owner of Oyster House, River’s Edge and Budd Bay Café. “We wanted to show the united front that restaurants have in this community. We want everyone to succeed.

“So many restaurants are closing,” she said. “I have so many friends in the restaurant industry who are saying, ‘We just can’t do this.’ It makes me sad.”

At each of Knutson’s restaurants, between two and four people are enough to keep limited operations going, she said, compared to perhaps 20 per shift before the pandemic.

And most of those working — at her restaurant and many others — are owners, managers and other salaried staff, she said. Pretty much everyone else has been laid off or is working very few hours.

“The giving trees are mostly for the employees who are sitting at home wanting to work,” Knutson told the Olympian. “A lot of them are a lot of single parents who are trying to teach their kids and be day-care providers and they’re laid off, and it’s Christmastime. And then there are young kids who are just getting started.”

At Uncork & Unwind in Tumwater, owner Michelle Pierce has been keeping her business going with just one employee, plus another on call. Before COVID-19, she said, she had 11 employees.

“This is hard,” she told the Olympian. “It’s frustrating when you have to lay off your employees because it’s better for them to be on unemployment than to work the few hours you can afford to give them.”

Hosting a giving tree was a longtime tradition for Knutson and her late husband, Patrick Knutson, who died in October. At River’s Edge, they always put up a tree for the Boys and Girls Clubs.

That tree — and Patrick Knutson’s generosity and kindness — inspired the adoption challenge trees popping up in South Sound restaurants, Dannielle Knutson said.

Her three Olympia restaurants and a dozen others are participating in the program, with many both adopting and being adopted. Restaurants adopting others were Café Au Lait Espresso, Nicole’s Bar, Pints Barn, Swing Wine Bar & Café, Uncork & Unwind and Well80. And the Washington Hospitality Association adopted Budd Bay.

“Everybody just kind of jumped on board,” Knutson said.

Pierce, whose business was adopted by River’s Edge and in turn adopted both Swing and Nicole’s, said she was excited to have an opportunity to help other restaurateurs. “I want to support and showcase as many small biz as I can right now,” she said.

The adoption challenge lets restaurant customers get involved in spreading holiday cheer, with donations and gifts accepted until Dec. 19, but even if not all gift tags are chosen, none of the workers will be left out, Knutson said. Restaurants who adopt have committed to give a gift to each worker, whether or not a customer donations cover the costs.

The Facebook poster she put together sums it up: “Together, we got this.”

This story was originally published December 14, 2020 at 5:45 AM.