Out of the Ashes: A Note From Steven

To our community,

Calling it now, Mercury in Retrograde by Sturgill Simpson. That's the song of the year. If you're so inclined, take a pause right here to queue it up on Spotify.

Back in April, I wrote to you about Barrio's first eight years. It feels like we've lived a second history since then. From lockdowns, to re-openings, to masks/sanitation, to testing out every takeout app on the market.

When all signs were pointing to shrinking our business instead of expanding, we took a wrong turn. We added a food truck at Midtown Yacht Club. Turns out, it was the best decision we could've made, when dining outdoors went from trendy to necessity.

Our team has never felt more like family. This summer, we lost one of our own. Chris Knight, our Barrio family for the last seven years, lost his battle to cancer. We wept with our team and rallied around Molly and Chris' family. Chris left a lasting impression on me to face uncertainty with positivity, as he always did. Chris helped us shape Barrio's larger than life, hospitable, and lively atmosphere, his spirit certainly lives on.

I couldn't have made it through this year without my team. Shayla's creativity and level-headedness, Matt's ability to put his head down and cook, Oscar's unmatched work ethic, and Justin's poise and ability to fix and build pretty much anything, helped make this year bearable. All of our employees, past and present, have made Barrio what it stands for today, and every day.

In these trying months, we've also received your notes of thanks; notes that have allowed us to pause and appreciate our community. We've received loans and grants, we've sold hundreds of gift cards, we've launched our trio of bottled hot sauce, and we've felt our community's support.

When Adam Danforth from Rogue Food Unites reached out in the midst of Oregon's devastating wildfires, we were called to serve in a new way. Adam's newly founded organization supports evacuees and our local economy through grants. Rogue Food Unites is not only feeding wildfire evacuees, it's also supporting local farmers and restaurants. It's an entire ecosystem centered around recovery, and it's working. Since meeting Adam, we've provided hundreds of meals to people who really needed those meals, and we'll continue to support these efforts. To date, Rogue Food Unites has served 179,000+ meals.

Meanwhile at home, I've been trying to convince my son Reuben that Ratatouille is the best Disney movie of all time (he's #teammoana). We've had more time with grandpa than I ever could've expected, we've kept Paris close, and we're missing Amy's family back east.

To make up for all of that lost time, I started a test kitchen at home (it's my love language, what can I say) pulling recipes from Michael Solomonov's cookbook, Zahav, and even some from Amy's grandmother. Amy loved it, and I figured what the heck, there's never been a better (or worse) time to make the dream of Israeli street food in Bend a reality.

You'll meet our new food truck, Shimshon, this winter. If you're on Instagram, follow @shimshonbend and run a Google search for sabich as a teaser of what's to come.

We're tired, we're exhausted, but we're also still here. We are still doing what we love to do, connecting with our community. We have no choice but to see what the future holds, and as it turns out, that's a pretty good lot in life.

Happy New Year,
Steven