PAGE A2, KEIZERTIMES, NOVEMBER 13, 2020
Without COVID lifeline, new restaurants
relying on local support, collaboration
BY LAUREN MURPHY
Of the Keizrtimes
Opening a restaurant is al-
ways a risky endeavor, but
opening during a pandemic
with the ever looming threat
of a lockdown is a real roll of
the dice. Nevertheless three
new restaurants have chosen to
make Keizer their new home–
and now they’re in need of
community support.
Though there is some
COVID relief available for
small businesses, the grants
require records from pre-
COVID to prove that a busi-
ness has been affected. Because
the Chicken Shack, Wicked
Sweet Bakery and El Vaquero
Santa Maria BBQ opened up
afterwards, they are ineligible
for the grants.
If these new restaurants
are going to survive it will
be based off of sales and rev-
enue generation. In short, they
need Keizerites to start coming
through.
“Every person who owns a
storefront here started with a
dream,” said Markey Toomes,
who co-owns The Chicken
Shack with his wife Monica.
Monica was handling the store
during the interview time.
Markey’s specifi c dream
was to own a franchise of his
family’s favorite restaurant,
the Chicken Shack. Original-
ly from California, they fell in
love with Oregon on a camp-
ing trip and decided to relo-
cate.
The Toomes family found
Keizer charming and after a
year of planning, praying and
searching, they opened The
Chicken Shack’s fi rst Oregon
location in the Keizer Village.
“COVID is here and that
has to be taken seriously, but
to say that it’s strong enough
to take away the dreams we’ve
had? We can’t allow that,”
Toomes said.
“Every person
who owns
a storefront
here started
with a dream.”
— Markey Toomes
Chicken Shack owner
Though they came here to
sell chicken, they also want to
invest in the community. Part
of why they love Keizer Village
is because of all the communi-
ty events the shopping center
hosts – most of which have
been canceled due to COVID.
“The other day at six
o’clock half of my dining
room was full of people in ka-
rate gear and gis. That’s not a
liability, that’s a benefi t to the
Gift tags hanging
for Giving Baskets
The Keizer Network of
Women’s Giving Basket pro-
gram takes on heightened
importance this year due to
COVID-19. The annual pro-
gram provides boxes of food
and toys for area families in
need.
The public is encouraged
to take part in the Giving Tags
part of the project. The public
can get tags with the names
of children and their gift wish
items from trees at 12 loca-
tions around Keizer.
Unwrapped gifts are due
back to the location where the
tags were chosen no later than
Friday, Dec. 4.
Giving Basket tags can be
found at Mommy and Maddi’s
(4765 River Rd. N); Los Dos
Hermanos (3950 River Rd.
N); Willamette Valley Bank
(5140 River Rd. N); Co-
lumbia Bank (4260 River Rd.
N); Courthouse Club Fitness
(117 McNary Estates Dr. N);
St. Edward Catholic Church
(5303 River Rd. N); Copy
Cats Keizer (3800 River Rd.
N): , Physiq Fitness (3850 Riv-
er Rd. N): Celtic Self Storage
(1101 Chemawa Rd. N): The
Chicken Shack (3844 River
community,” Toomes said.
They gave over 50 kids free
meals because of their accom-
plishments at the Keizer ATA, a
martial arts studio. The Chick-
en Shack is also hosting Cook’s
Night Out on Wednesday, Nov.
18.
“We would love to see the
community come out and
support us. We understand that
they’re going through the same
things we’re going through,
it’s not like something where
we’re asking them to carry us,
but at the same time we do
need their support for us to
stay around,” Toomes said.
Their neighbor, Wicked
Sweet Bakery, also started from
a dream. Michael Peters and
his wife, Kati, owned and op-
erated The Doughnut Shop in
Stayton for a little over a year
before moving to Keizer with
the hopes of making more
money to support their family.
Kati was busy prepping for the
next day and was not present
at the interview.
“There’s just less foot traf-
fi c than we had anticipated. In
Stayton, which is a tiny town,
I had more customers per day
than I do here, and we did not
expect that” Peters said.
In Stayton they focused
on specialty donuts, but the
larger space in Keizer has al-
lowed them to expand to a
full bakery with scones, cup-
cakes, cakes and donuts. They
were originally slated to open
in November of 2019, but got
caught up in permitting issues
and weren’t able to open until
June.
“It hurt us because we
didn’t have all the foot traf-
fi c to get known before it all
closed down. I think it would
have helped if we opened
[then],” Peters said. Though
he added from an employee
standpoint it was probably bet-
ter because they did not have
to go through months of un-
employment.
When the bakery opened
in June they kept their lob-
by closed in an effort to be as
COVID-conscious as possible,
but with winter around the
corner they’ve opened up their
lobby to keep customers out of
the harsher weather.
The Peters are friendly peo-
ple who love food, and when
they make friends with other
people who love food, collab-
oration happens. So far Wicked
Sweet Bakery has collabora-
tion donuts in the works with
The Chicken Shack, Uncle
Troy’s BBQ and Sweet Licks.
“I’m like, ‘Hey, you guys
have chicken, I have a waffl e,
let’s put them together,” Peter’s
said. They are exploring more
savory options for their menu.
El Vaquero expanded from a
catering business to a sit-down
restaurant in hopes of making
more money, as COVID has
been extremely rough on the
catering business. They’re pay-
ing the bills but it comes with
a price.
“We’re probably sitting at
60% take out right now com-
pared to dine in,” said Orlando
Cepeda, who owns El Vaquero
‘You guys have
chicken, I have a
waffl e, let’s put
them together.’
— Michael Peters
Wicked Sweet owner
“I think it’s at par level for
the situation we’re at right
now and we’ve been very sup-
ported by the community, and
we’re very grateful for that,”
Cepeda said. According to the
professionals he talked to be-
fore opening the restaurant, he
expected more than 50% of
orders to be take out.
Cepeda believes that this is
the new normal for the time
being, but he hopes one day he
will be able to make person-
al connections with everyone
who buys his food.
“I’d love to see everybody’s
faces that eat our food. I’m al-
ways out on the fl oor, talking
to folks and seeing their smile
and hearing them say how
wonderful the food is, but
when people take it out you
don’t get that same satisfac-
tion,” Cepeda said.
All of the business own-
ers understand that the com-
munity has been hit hard by
COVID, but since they don’t
qualify for any of the aid they
are in more need of commu-
nity support than some larger,
chain restaurants.
Wicked Sweet Bakery and
The Chicken Shack are lo-
cated in the Keizer Village on
River Road. El Vaquero Santa
Maria BBQ is on River Road
next to Dutch Bros.
“Thank you to the commu-
nity for supporting us, we look
forward to meeting more folks
out there and we look forward
to having you come in and say
hello,” Cepeda said.
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We Didn’t Set The Bar
WE ARE
THE BAR!
“ This community is beautiful and the whole staff is so attentive
FOLLOW THE
KEIZERTIMES ON:
with his wife, Kelly. Though it’s
a good thing that people are
eating their food, Cepeda miss-
es the face to face interaction.
and caring! The atmosphere is engaging and respectful and it is
so good to know that Mom is in such good hands. I would highly
recommend this community to anyone! ”
— HEIDI
r ached t h e age of si i x t y -two.
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