Gabe Cupp holding wrapped rolls of toilet paper he's giving out with each order, although many leave them behind for someone who needs it.
Gabe Cupp slices vegetables at the Brown Shack Tavern
Although I gave up drinking two decades ago, I’ve visited taverns twice in the past month.
No, the coronavirus pandemic hasn’t driven me to drink, although I can see where people might want to drown their fears and worries in light of what’s happening in the world.
In early March, a friend and I drove to the Long Beach Tavern to pick up pizzas for the Writers Weekend at the Beach, and while there, we enjoyed the best seafood chowder I’ve ever tasted.
Then this Sunday I stopped just off Highway 12 at the century-old Brown Shack Tavern in Salkum after learning it offered a free roll of toilet paper to everyone who orders a bucket of beer or food to go.
What a novel marketing idea during the throes of a pandemic when people have stockpiled toilet paper, leaving shelves bare at many stores.
Earlier in the day, a couple drove two hours from the Seattle area after seeing a story about the TP giveaway on KOMO News, said Gabe Cupp, bartender, cook and brother of owner Roxy Cupp of Silver Creek.
But, he said, three out of four patrons don’t even take the toilet paper. Like Phil Beyers, a Merchant Marine who retired from Seattle via Leavenworth with his wife to Toledo, where he has Buswell relatives.
“I’m still kind of not really understanding what the toilet paper thing is all about,” Beyers said. “I mean, how much toilet paper can you use? It surprises me it’s off the shelf.”
He’s a regular and praised the Brown Shack as a patriotic business that treats everybody well.
Beyers ordered burgers to go but left without TP.
“I had a plethora of it already, not because I went out and stocked up, just because I had already been to Costco when all this came down,” he said.
Two days after Governor Jay Inslee closed inside gatherings at Washington’s restaurants and bars March 16, Roxy Cupp decided to give away toilet paper with each bucket of beer. Because she sells only beer and wine — not hard liquor — her license lets her sell beer in unopened bottles or growlers or kegs.
“It’s been a beer-and-wine tavern since 1920,” she said.
Closure of the Star Tavern in 2015 left the little Brown Shack, with its maximum occupancy of 50, as the last tavern in Lewis County to serve only beer and wine, not hard alcohol.
After seeing the scramble for toilet paper by panicked people, Cupp looked at her hundred-plus rolls and placed another online order with her food distributor.
“Everyone was so frantic about buying it,” she said. “I’m just going to keep them stocked up.”
Cupp, who runs the tavern with the help of one employee — now laid off — and her brother, wanted to keep cash flowing. She promoted the free TP to patrons, friends, and on Facebook.
“In the beginning I didn’t think it was going to be profitable,” she said. “People think it’s funny. It keeps them laughing, coming in to get free toilet paper.”
The tavern extended the beer offer to takeout orders of its dozen or so food items, including burgers, hot sandwiches, pizza, chicken wings, fries, onion rings and homemade jalapeno artichoke dip and fry sauce.
During the coronavirus crisis, the Brown Shack is open from 2 to 8 p.m. for to-go orders.
“I’ve been a lot busier than I thought I would be,” Roxy Cupp said. “I am cooking more than I’ve ever cooked so my sales honestly are really good.”
She moved to Lewis County from San Diego in 2006 and, as a single mother of three sons, worked three jobs — cleaning houses, waiting tables, and working as a bartender at weddings on weekends. She bought the tavern six years ago.
“I had some money saved up and I was honestly sick of working for people,” she said. “I knew I could make money. There are a lot of older people that frequent my bar. It’s a community center.”
Cupp will continue to order a case of toilet paper every week or two.
“We get 20 to 30 people through the door a day for to-go’s,” she said. “I’m doing a lot better than I thought I would. My sales are probably more than half what I usually do.
“People think it’s funny and it kind of lightens everyone’s mood.”
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Julie McDonald, a personal historian from Toledo, may be reached at chaptersoflife1999@gmail.com.
