Effort aims at reopening cafe that aided homeless

When the Boomtown Cafe in downtown Seattle shut down last year, the homeless lost more than a hot meal. They lost a moment in their day when they felt normal.

They got to choose what they wanted to eat. They were served at a table. People looked them in the eye.

After going bust last year for the second time, Boomtown Cafe is again struggling to open its doors. The cafe was an institution among the homeless and low-income population.

"People got together there to get through their day," said Doug McKeehen, who credits a plate of Boomtown pancakes with giving him the push to get off the streets. He said the closure was "devastating" to the homeless community.

Daniel Lieberman, interim executive director for the cafe, said he hopes to raise enough money in the next two to three months to start up again.

The cafe served more than food, he says. It served dignity.

Everyone paid, whether by pulling out cash or wiping up tables. In exchange, they were treated like customers at a normal restaurant.

"The cafe was as dignified, and people were treated with as much dignity as we could afford," Lieberman said.

When the cafe opened in 1999, the founders thought it would be a place where customers would pay what they could — those who could afford to would pay and donate money beyond the cost of the $1 to $2 meals; those who couldn't would work in the cafe for meal credits.

But the demand from homeless and low-income diners crowded out customers who could pay, Lieberman said. The cafe could not cover its costs.

According to Lieberman, the name came from "The Grapes of Wrath," John Steinbeck's book about the Great Depression, and the tech boom that fueled Seattle's economy at the end of the last century.

The cafe shut down the first time in 2000. A few months later it reopened but continued to face the same problems: It was giving away more than it could afford. By last year, Boomtown was serving as many as 800 meals a day, 80 to 90 percent for bartered labor.

Lieberman came on the job in January last year and knew the cafe, at 513 Third Ave., was in trouble. In July, Boomtown served its last meal.

The board of directors was tired, said Craig Darling, executive director of Companis, a nonprofit that provides professional services to nonprofit agencies such as Boomtown.

"Boomtown needed new, fresh blood on the board and new management," Darling said. "They also needed to be seriously called to raise money from the community."

Since last year, most of the board members have been replaced. Lieberman has also revitalized fundraising, organizing two dinners a month that feature guest chefs. Last week, John Platt from St. Clouds restaurant hosted a meal there.

Lieberman and the board have raised $100,000, two-thirds of their goal. The board is still weighing how to keep the cafe afloat over the long term. Ongoing fundraisers and limiting the number of meals the cafe serves are a couple of possibilities.

"We can be open almost right now, but we want to guarantee that we have sustainability," said Ron Johnson, who has served on the board for two years. "I don't want to be a part of reopening [only] to close again."

Johnson first discovered Boomtown when he was homeless. Sitting in the cafe, he looked around, listened to a guy on the piano and saw people "halfway feeling kind of normal."

"While you're sitting there, you're not just getting warm food in your belly, your mind is somewhat kind of relaxed," he said.

Johnson went back to school and is now working at a software company on the Eastside.

Every time he goes downtown, he says, people ask him when Boomtown is going to open.

"This has to be done right," Johnson said. "It's too important of a mission to not do it right."

Sharon Pian Chan: 206-464-2958 or schan@seattletimes.com