By Rod Lee

Cheryl Swyers is doing all right for herself as owner of The Family Table Diner on Quaker Highway in Uxbridge, considering that she entered the venture with no prior experience in the food industry.

“This has been a lifelong dream since I was twelve,” Ms. Swyers said on January 20, just before closing time. “I always wanted to operate a truck stop.”

The Family Table Diner, conveniently situated near the on-off ramps for Rt. 146, is open for breakfast (all day) and lunch from 6:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., and for dinner until 6:30 p.m. on Fridays. The dinner menu includes meatloaf, shepherd’s pie, lasagna, fish and chips and chicken parmesan.

 

The restaurant is closed on Wednesdays and Sundays.

She acquired the former Baker Boy Town Grill in 2019, had a soft opening and then a grand opening on February 1, 2020, “just before COVID-19.”

This month marks her third-year anniversary; a learn-as-I-go proposition, she readily admits.

As might be expected, the initial weeks and months were difficult. But adversity is nothing new for Ms. Swyers. “I am a cancer survivor,” she said. “From that I have a very good relationship with the Lord, just grateful to be here.”

She is also a veteran of the military and law enforcement.

The Family Table Diner “never closed” during the pandemic, even if this meant she had to operate with just three people alongside her at times. “There are times when I am in here by myself,” when, she says, laughing, “I am the dishwasher, the server and the cook.”

But she is quick to praise Karen Petersen (“she is my server and my right arm, she’s been through thick and thin”), her staff, her husband (also a vet, and a firefighter) and her daughters Lindsey and Rhiannon. Her husband helped with many of the nifty decorative touches around the restaurant (a mix of signs with such messages as “We Rent Pigs,” “No fishing,” “Outhouse”—with a directional arrow, old license plates, an axe, a saw, a whist board “from years ago” and a large chicken named “George” in honor of the previous owner). 

Daughter Lindsey handles the website for the restaurant. Daughter Rhiannon takes care of Facebook.

In response to the virus, The Family Table Diner pivoted, as have other establishments.

“We implemented online ordering for takeout,” she said. “That helped. Customers could pick up at curbside. There are a lot of teachers in the area. A lot of our food is for hungry truckers.”

When a snowplow destroyed the sign to the drive-through, last year, she took it in stride. That is not surprising for a woman who is not only outgoing and friendly but enthusiastic about what she does, especially as this relates to keeping customers of The Family Table Diner happy.

There was the higher price of goods to deal with, when five gallons of oil went from seventeen dollars to more than forty dollars, and the price of a bag of potatoes for fries spiked to ten dollars—for instance. “Another big thing is if you own your own building, no overhead; I pay rent,” she says.

Upon launching The Family Table Diner, she made immediate upgrades.

“Everything in back needed to be changed over,” she said. She added an induction pressure cooker and a convection oven.

Homemade fare with what she refers to as “a Southwest flavor” is a staple at The Family Table Diner and that is only going to get better with access to a farm. “I have one hundred fifty chickens at a farm up the road in Douglas, for eggs. This is good because stores have been out of them.”

She is focusing on “healthier options” and points to the use of Himalayan pink salt and avocados as evidence of this.