Bethany's Table Ten-Year Anniversary

The Ever-Changing Decade

 It’s been ten years. Count backwards. We started the restaurant in 2009 at the depths of that terrible recession. We were caught holding the bag on the lease for this space and had taken over a failing business that sucked us dry. Janet told me, “What this neighborhood really needs is a good restaurant.” The Bethany Grill was still open nearby, but failing and about to close. We didn’t have tables or chairs (some of which we snuck out of the Grill when they walked away) nor cooking equipment or plates or flatware. All of our credit cards were tapped out but one - Janet had stashed one card with a $15,000 credit limit. We were off! Customers gave us flatware. We purchased a pile of old plates and bowls for 10¢ each on Craigslist, I built tables. We bought a 3-burner camp stove on eBay for $38. We splurged on a barbecue that we used for all of our grilling (on the back porch) until 2014. Ten years. Wow! We made it. Thanks to you!Many of you have been along for the entire ride. You folks know the story. We didn’t have a sign for eight years, so it took some of you longer to find us. Tucked away in a largely unknown spot on the edge of the urban growth boundary with a Portland address in unincorporated Washington County, Beaverton School District. As a destination, we suck. Geographically, we don’t exist. We need our neighbors, our regular customers. And we know it.For years ours was the story of an accidental restaurant. The 15’ cooler lived in the dining room. (At the beginning, so was our cooking line and oven, as we tried without much luck to take on Starbucks with good coffee and fresh pastry.) We bought shelving from a Whole Foods store being remodeled and started selling wine. We held wine tasting dinners – the fee for our first one was just $5 per person. At one point during these dire times I found my mind down a thought trail at Trader Joe’s, plotting to steal a shopping cart and designing the hooks I would use to hang the garbage bags needed to supplement the cart’s limited volume. It looked bleak. But the gods were gracious. Singular events would arise out of nowhere and save our skin. Nike hired us to cater to 500 kids; my son Adam wrecked my Karmann Ghia; we sold our dog. We sold everything.

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The images above show then and now shots of the dining room and wine bar. We remodeled in increments, removing the tacky fluorescent lights, opening up the entrance, partitioning the dining room from the lobby, installing cabinets here and there. In September 2013 we closed for a week to remodel the entry, removed those nasty fluorescent lights and installed new cabinets in the dining room. In 2014 we closed for another week or so and installed a legitimate cooking line with a legal hood, finally abandoning our back porch barbecue. 2015 had us annexing some of the space next door, expanding the kitchen and installing new toilet rooms for the eventual expansion of the wine bar. This we were compelled to do, largely because we felt it was essential to our progress, though we were helped along when a code enforcement letter from the County arrived in our mailbox. The County was firm but gracious. Our landlord was flexible and worked with us. Customers that hadn’t visited for a few weeks would remark on all the changes. Change had been our only constant.[pb_slideshow group="6"]In 2016 we gutted the restaurant. We had annexed space in the frozen yogurt shop the previous year, which allowed us to expand the kitchen and build new restrooms – per the County’s mandate. But now it was time to legitimize the dining room. The monstrous cooler needed to go, as did the orange linoleum flooring. We erected beams, framed a ceiling,  installed wainscoting, wood ceiling and a set barn doors that would partition the dining room for private dining and special events. We hung an entry awning that doubled as a sign. We purchased and refinished old pews to serve as banquettes. We didn’t use a contractor as there wasn’t sufficient funds or time for such a luxury. Our otherwise laid off staff did the work. It took three weeks. It was a miracle.Now, at the 10-year mark, we are implementing additional changes, though minor in comparison. Janet has remodeled the menu to more fully celebrate the local produce she procures from a network of local farmers and to give diners more freedom to choose the accompaniments for your entrée. Hiring and retaining gifted individuals means that we must make room for them to flourish and be creative. Thus the kitchen has become a creative cauldron staffed by happy, talented individuals. Now Janet is free to focus more on events and private dining, particularly winemaker dinners. Out front we practice the philosophy of “self-managed teams” with a cadre of professionals that maintain rich, warm relationships with our regular customers. I (David) have less and less work to do, and that seems to suit almost everybody.Thanks to you – you know who you are – it’s now our ball to muff. There will be another recession. There will be more adventures. There will be more change. We will all eventually get old. This time however - this 10-year milestone – is a time to celebrate. Now through the end of April, mention our 10-year anniversary next time you dine with us and we will reward you with a free pantry board item. Thank you all for a great decade!