Restaurateur continues 19-year tradition of gratitude

Seventeen years ago on Thanksgiving morning, Tally Alame was at the hospital begging his wife to hurry up and have the baby because he had people to feed.

Their daughter Jenna was born, and Alame maintained his tradition by serving a free Thanksgiving Day dinner to anyone who dropped by his restaurant, Tally's Good Food Cafe at 11th Street and Yale Avenue.

Alame was in the cafe's industrial-size kitchen Thursday morning preparing food for the 1,000 people he expected for lunch when Jenna, now a bouncing teenager, came in. She left with dozens of her father's famous homemade rolls for their family's Thanksgiving celebration.

It's another Thanksgiving meal without Dad, but they're used to that.

Alame hasn't been home on Thanksgiving since 1987, when he realized his dream of opening a restaurant and expressed his gratitude with a free holiday meal for anyone who needed it.

"Since I was blessed to have a business on 11th Street, I thought, 'Well, what goes around comes around,' " Alame said Thursday morning as he watched over boiling vats of gravy, green beans and corn.

He had 35 roasted turkeys -- that's 750 pounds of bird -- 15 huge trays of mashed potatoes, 17 trays of dressing, nearly 20 trays of peach cobbler and 24 pumpkin pies.

Dozens upon dozens of rolls billowed from oversize muffin tins.

Everything -- even the gallons and gallons of cranberry dressing -- was made from scratch.

"Oh, you gotta try this," Alame said, scooping the red, gooey confection from a gigantic plastic bowl.

"And the gravy. Have you tasted the gravy?"

Alame didn't even know what went into a Thanksgiving meal when he moved to Tulsa in 1979 from Lebanon, then trodden by civil war. He was 19.

He landed a job at Jamil's Restaurant, where a couple he waited on invited him to come to Inola for Thanksgiving.

"I was probably the only foreigner in Inola," recalled Alame, who rarely is without a smile. "I fell asleep on their bed after the meal. I ate so much that day."

That's how Alame wants everyone to leave his cafe, Thanksgiving or not -- full and happy from the American fare he learned to prepare by watching.

It was nearing 10 a.m., and lunch would begin at 11. Christmas music and holiday decorations filled the restaurant. People were lined up outside.

Volunteers -- some of them regular patrons -- began to trickle in. Some of them know Alame from church or the gym. Others, such as Lashanta Brewer, 12, just saw the sign on the door announcing the free meal and came in to help.

Pamela Haynes, an old friend of Alame's, said the "good Lord told me to come down here and help."

Haynes turned from the pot of coffee she was making and asked what corporate sponsors donated to the meal.

"Sponsors?" responded Roger Lowry, a 10-year regular at the cafe and volunteer of several years.

"Sponsors? That's the only sponsor."

He pointed to Alame.

Alame hesitated to say how much all this costs. Looking away, he said $4,000 or $5,000. That's just for the food. The figure doesn't count the three days and nights Alame and some volunteers spent preparing and cooking.

He doesn't ask for donations, nor does he expect his employees to work; he wants them home with their families.

Still, some of them volunteer. Among them is Kareem Al-Mayahi, who has worked at Tally's for a decade after fleeing Iraq during the Persian Gulf War in 1991.

Just the night before, Al-Mayahi made gallons of gravy, pounds of peach cobbler and two dozen pumpkin pies.

He opened the refrigerator where the desserts were stacked. The petite man smiled and insisted that later on everybody must try some.

"I like to do this," Al-Mayahi said. "I appreciate when they bring me here to the United States. I give something back."

Alame rushed toward the front door, the only barrier between his carefully cooked meal and a line of people snaking down the street.

"We're opening!" he hollered.

The line flooded into the pristine, red-and-white-tiled cafe, where volunteers were scooping piles of foods onto Styrofoam plates and serving people as they sat down.

They came to Tally's for Thanksgiving because they have no home or money. They came because they can afford a meal but have no one to share it with. They came because they just lost a father, mother or child and home at the holidays isn't the same.

Some, including the Gonzalez family, come because time is too precious to spend cooking and cleaning. Their son, Christopher, 19, leaves Dec. 1 for Army training in Georgia before he goes to Fallujah, Iraq.

"This is the last time I'm coming home," said the fresh-faced soldier, admitting that he's nervous.

"For a while," said his mother, Valery Gonzalez. "The last time you're coming home in a while."

Valery Gonzalez, her husband and their children crowded at a table and ate Thanksgiving dinner as if they were home.

Others made their own families. Rebecca Cochran, a 71-year-old janitor, and her neighbor, Connie Craft, 74, ate together in a small booth.

One woman who gave her name only as Jo came alone but found company with Remona and Danny Foster, who have eaten at Tally's since it opened.

Danny Foster's father died last year, and he said his mother no longer cooks a Thanksgiving meal. The Fosters didn't see any point in cooking for just two.

"Tally's fantastic to do this," Danny Foster said. "It's so good, because so many people have no place to go."

Leigh Woosley 581-8465
leigh.woosley@tulsaworld.com

Holiday closings

• City, county and state offices will be closed Friday.

• The federal courthouse in Tulsa will be closed Friday.

• The city’s wood chip site at 10401 E. 56th St. North will be closed Friday.

• Friday trash service in Tulsa will not be affected.

Restaurant not alone in offering free Thanksgiving meals

Among the other places that offered free Thanksgiving meals:

Batman's Good Food , 1444 N. Mingo Road

With the help of about 40 volunteers, the restaurant served between 600 and 700 people with a spread of 30 turkeys, 20 gallons of mashed potatoes, 36 cans of vegetables and 30 boxes of vegetables.

"That's a lot of food," said Kenny Chew, who recently bought Batman's, which has served free Thanksgiving meals for 11 years.

The Salvation Army , 102 N. Denver Ave.

Between 700 and 800 meals were served with the help of 120 volunteers. Some of the food was donated. The center also gave hats and gloves.

Duffy's Restaurant , 706 S. Elm Place, Broken Arrow

At least 800 people received meals made from 35 turkeys, mashed potatoes, green beans, rolls, 300 pounds of dressing and pumpkin pie.

Eddie Chamat, the restaurant's owner, said, "It started with the homeless and grandparents or parents whose children lived far away so they had no one else.

"Then we started having our local regulars coming here for Thanksgiving because this is their second home. Some of them are well-off people who don't need a free meal, but they come because they feel like they're at home."

Chamat said that every year he hears a heartbreaking story from someone who would have been alone this holiday. This year's came from a woman who in the last couple of months lost her mother and her dog.

"That's what it's all about," Chamat said. "She made my day, and I made hers."