It was a snowy morning in Tacoma, and that meant people would stay home if they could. But Chayan Samalee got in his car and drove to work.
He knew there was one person who came to his little spot in Freighthouse Square every morning to buy a coffee. Samalee opened his restaurant, which sells golden crackly crusted fish and chips at a counter, and waited.
The customer never came, he recalled to me recently. Still, Samalee was glad he went to work, just in case. It’s just one of the ways he’s a bit like Freighthouse Square itself: there for the community around him, whether they know it or not…