Pecan Lodge owners launch nonprofit to help rescue Dallas’ independent restaurants

Updated at 3:16 p.m. April 8 to reflect a large donation from Match.

Pecan Lodge was born in a time of crisis. In 2008, during the last financial crisis, Justin and Diane Fourton were working as consultants for Accenture. When the economy tanked, they lost their jobs and began searching for a new way to sustain themselves.

“That’s actually when we decided to pursue our dream of, you know, starting a little catering business,” Diane says.

The business started out as a food-truck-like service, before food trucks were really a thing. They drove around selling barbecue sandwiches out of a barbecue pit.

Ten years later, in the middle of another crisis, they’re celebrating the restaurant they built after an economic downturn.

“We were, up until two weeks ago, excited to celebrate 10 years in Dallas,” Diane says. “That’s kind of a big accomplishment, I think. And now we find ourselves in a place that feels like we may be back to square one again with a sudden, dramatic loss of income and looking at the future.”

When Dallas County required restaurants to close their dining rooms in response to the coronavirus outbreak, Justin says Pecan Lodge lost 90% of its income overnight.

Remembering their experiences back in 2008 and wanting to prevent layoffs, the couple decided to keep all of their staff on hand, paying them as long as possible.

“It’s not through the fact that we’re earning enough money in the business,” Justin says. “We’re supplementing that through the business with our personal savings.”

They also provide their staff with food sourced from their restaurant supply ― like bags of rice, beans and even meat ― to help staff save money on expenses and reduce the need to go to the store.

The Fourtons know that sustaining Dallas’ restaurant community won’t last long this way. Diane notes that the most critical moment for restaurants, right now, is the time between applying and waiting for a disaster loan from the government to sustain their businesses.

“As we watched things progress in the news, and saw the scale that the problem continued to grow, we started to shift our focus from, you know, ‘How can we save our own business?’ to ‘How can we address the needs of the broader community and our broader industry?,'” Justin says.

So they decided to develop a nonprofit organization to help Dallas’ independently owned restaurants weather this new financial crisis.

Justin says the nonprofit, called The Dinner Bell Dallas, has two missions. First, to get food to people in the Dallas community, especially health care workers, first responders and the unemployed. Second, they want to help save Dallas’ local, independent restaurants in a time of crisis.

The Dinner Bell Dallas is still in the very early stages, but plans include supporting restaurants by advising them on the creation of a boxed-lunch menu that will be sold from a pickup location at Pecan Lodge’s commissary. Consultation will include crafting a low-cost menu from the restaurant’s existing offerings. The menu will maintain the restaurant’s identity, but allow them to sell food at an affordable price for consumers who may ― as the economic crisis continues ― be less willing to spend their money on restaurant-made food.

They’ll also help restaurants assess their financial costs and maintain their staff as they work through the crisis.

Second, they hope to provide financial gifts for those restaurants through a funding program that corporations and individuals can donate to.

The project is just now getting its legs, as the Fourtons seek corporate funding from larger Dallas businesses, and as they spread the word of their mission throughout the community.

The Dinner Bell Dallas will offer food to customers through an online order-based pickup program at their commissary, and they intend to offer delivery options as the program develops. As more restaurants join the boxed-lunch menu plan, customers will be able to specify their menu selections on The Dinner Bell’s website.

As for the name, a dinner bell is significant for the Fourtons. Diane bought one as a gift for Justin when they first started working at the Dallas Farmers Market. At the market and at their Deep Ellum restaurants, the dinner bell rings every day to announce to customers that Pecan Lodge is ready to serve.

“Now, that dinner bell is a symbol of this nonprofit to let everyone know that now we’re ready to serve our community,” Diane says.

As of April 8, 2020, Dallas-based online dating company Match (think Hinge, Tinder, OkCupid and Match) pledged to donate $30,000 to the Dinner Bell Foundation and match additional donations up to $15,000 in an effort to feed those on the frontlines of the COVID-19 crisis.

For more information go to dinnerbelldallas.org. Restaurants can contact the Dinner Bell Dallas to become part of the program by emailing outreach@dinnerbell.org.