Williams & Graham offers free shift dinners for industry workers

Williams & Graham just opened to the public on Tuesday night -- but word of the stylish speakeasy's free shift meals for industry types got out fast. By the time the group meal was served, fifteen appreciative restaurant/bar workers -- from Linger, Lola, Root Down and other Highland joints --...

By Patricia Calhoun

November 17, 2011

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Williams & Graham just opened to the public on Tuesday night -- but word of the stylish speakeasy's free shift meals for industry types got out fast. By the time the group meal was served, fifteen appreciative restaurant/bar workers -- from Linger, Lola, Root Down and other Highland joints -- were there to chow down on baked ziti.

"Fifteen people in the industry came for the shift-meal thing," marvels Sean Kenyon, who opened the place with partner Todd Colehour.

And last night, Williams & Graham's second night of business? A dozen industry people showed up for the shift meal, this time potatoes gratin with boar bacon.

The menu for the group dinner, served after 11 p.m., will change every night -- sometimes lasagna, sometimes tacos, Kenyon says -- but the emphasis on treating hospitality workers right will not. The meal is free even if a waiter just coming off duty doesn't want to drink one of Williams & Graham's speciality cocktails, and just goes for a glass of water.

"We want to take care of the people in our industry," Kenyon says. " We want a place where we would hang out even if we didn't own it."

A version of this story originally appeared in Cafe Bites, our weekly e-mail newsletter devoted to Denver's food and drink scene, which arrives in e-mail boxes every Wednesday afternoon. You can subscribe here.

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Patricia Calhoun is editor-in-chief of Westword, the alt-weekly she co-founded in September 1977. She’s been inducted into the Colorado Press Association Hall of Fame, the Association of Alternative Newsmedia Hall of Fame and the Colorado Restaurant Association Hall of Fame. She’s also received dozens of local, state and national awards for writing, including first place for feature writing and first place for column writing with the Society of Professional Journalists. Patricia is a weekly commentator on Colorado Inside Out, PBS 12's public affairs roundtable, which has won two Emmys.

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