WOODINVILLE, Wash. — Even though restaurants and bars are closed under a Washington state order, a high-end Woodinville chef has been preparing meals for healthcare workers
“Our goal on a daily basis is, at a bare minimum, to make people feel better when they leave then when they came in. And that intention is still the same,” said chef Chris Webber of The Herbfarm.
The Herbfarm is known for farm to table fine dining but like so many restaurants, they weren’t immune to the impact of the coronavirus.
“Shutting down for any period of time is difficult for any business. And there is going to be a lot of fall out about businesses that are just not going to be open again and we may not be able to stay open,” said the restaurant’s owner Carrie Van Dyck.
However, those in the kitchen are working because of the support from the community – nearly $90,000 was donated in just two weeks.
“We have a lot of volunteers that are working on our behalf to try to keep us functioning and bringing these three-course, hot, nutritious, locally sourced meals to those people on the front lines at the hospitals,” Van Dyck said.
Their new system is not a perfect fix. They’ve had to lay off their entire front of house, but many of the crew have volunteered to come back and help prepare boxed lunches.
“We are usually pretty flexible and creative about how to stay in business and we’re hoping that we can keep the team together and open back up again,” Van Dyck said.
The Herbfarm doesn’t know how long this new normal will last or how long they’ll be able to keep cranking out meals-- they just know they’ll be working until the very end.