To our Friends and Family—

In October of this year, Lowell’s will celebrate twelve years of business. It’s inspiring how many of you have followed along with us on this journey and we get so much joy from seeing your faces in the restaurant every week (or in some cases, every day!). From when we opened Peter Lowell’s to the restaurant it’s become today, it's evolved into what makes Lowell’s, well, Lowell’s: organically-sourced food and wine in a comfortable, community-focused setting. Today we’re announcing some changes that will help us further our mission.

Effective Tuesday, August 6th, we’ll be making some changes at the restaurant. Lowell’s will be closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays as well as forgoing breakfast, instead opening from 11am-2:30pm for lunch and 5-9pm for dinner. Brunch items will be available on the weekend, and we’ll have a more focused menu for lunch and dinner.

Taking two days off a week and shortening our hours will allow for stronger staff and management, and more dedication to the service and our food. Our love for this restaurant grows every day, but we are also looking to the future: what can we improve on, what can we incorporate from what we’ve learned, and most importantly, how can we be the best version of Lowell’s? We want to be ready to meet these questions head-on, with hope, inspiration, and a renewed dedication to this lovely space that’s become an integral part of West County.

We will also be removing the 20% service charge added to every bill; tips will still be pooled between the servers and kitchen, so it is my hope that you will continue to reward them for their excellent customer service and the hard work they do. By getting rid of the service charge, we can implement a 3.5% health care and sustainability charge. Of that percentage, 2.5% will go to health care coverage for our staff. We currently provide healthcare to all full-timers, but with this charge we’ll be able to continue to do so in a way that’s financially viable for the restaurant while still paying a fair wage.

The remaining 1% will go towards carbon neutrality. We are working with Zero Foodprint on environmental action that will actually make a difference against global warming. The money will go towards renewable farming and energy projects, balancing out our carbon footprint by contributing to better food production. We’re excited to be a part of this movement, and look for more in-depth information coming soon!

Running a restaurant is hard work, but it’s extremely rewarding. We’ve done some wonderful things in the past twelve years, and we’ll continue to do wonderful things in the future thanks to these changes. We’d like to thank you for your continued support and allowing us to have this honest conversation with you. We’re thankful for this community and hope to build these bonds even stronger than before.

With gratitude,
Lowell and Natalie

If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to reach out to myself or our Director of Communications Jesse Hom-Dawson at jesse@lowellssebastopol.com