Restaurant owner offers Christmas Day dinner
Linda Britton, who owns the Chuckwagon restaurant in Florence, will be busy preparing a big traditional Christmas dinner on Tuesday.
"It will be turkey and all the trimmings," she said.
The only problem is she is not sure who her guests will be or how many she will have.
Britton has invited anyone in Florence and the surrounding area, who might find themselves alone on Christmas day, to come to the restaurant for dinner and a chance to visit with others.
"This is the second year for us to serve the meal in Florence," she said. "Last year we had about 20 people show up, but the news about the dinner had only spread by word of mouth. This year we put an ad in the Gazette-Bulletin, so it's possible we will have more."
But Britton insists that will be OK, too. "We have room and lots of food; the more, the merrier."
Britton served Christmas dinner four or five times to people she worked with at Hesston Corporation. Some of her co-workers had no families or found themselves alone on Christmas Day and she began the tradition for them.
"I decided last year to try it locally. People who came seemed to enjoy it. It doesn't take all that much and I just figured I could do it again," she said.
She encourages her regular staff to be home with their families on Christmas Day so she does almost all of the preparation, serving, and clean up herself along with the help of Mike Warner.
"Last year, my neighbor lady volunteered to wash dishes for me. That was nice to have some help with the cleanup. This year I have a man coming in to keep the dishes washed up. But I do the rest," said Britton.
The meal will be served at the Chuckwagon Café in downtown Florence from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on Christmas Day. There is no charge.
