09/01/2026
📸: Season 1, Day 1 👉🏼 Season 10, Last Day
From the very bottom of my heart, I would like to thank everyone for all of the support I have received since we first opened the doors to VERA back in 2017.
I was 25 years old when I started this business and truly had no idea how this adventure was going to turn out. This little business continued to grow year after year and became something bigger and more special than I ever could have dreamed.
When you work in the restaurant industry, teamwork is everything, and I have been so lucky to work alongside the incredible people who have made up our team over the years. Staffing our little seasonal restaurant was never easy—we were only open three months of the year—but somehow, I was always lucky enough to have a handful of amazing humans who came back year after year. I will forever be grateful for every person who chose to spend their summers working alongside me and helping make VERA what it became.
For the majority of my time at VERA, I was working in the kitchen. In that kitchen, there was a little window overlooking the entrance of the restaurant. Although you may not have always seen me, I always saw you.
I saw you patiently waiting in line. I saw your smiles as you walked through the doors. I noticed every wave and every attempted peek through that little window to see inside the kitchen. And most of all, I loved hearing the words, “thanks chef,” as you were leaving.
I’m really going to miss seeing you through that little window.
Over the years, I’ve also been given the privilege of watching so many pieces of your lives unfold within those walls. I’ve seen first dates and last dates, casual nights out, anniversaries and rehearsal dinners, birthday and retirement parties, high school reunions, and even families gathering together after celebrations of life.
Restaurants really are special places. They’re places where people come together—to celebrate, to reconnect, to laugh, to grieve, and sometimes just to sit across from someone they love and share a meal.
I am so incredibly proud that VERA got to be the backdrop for so many of those moments in your lives. And in return, each and every one of you became a part of mine simply by walking through our doors.
For that, I will always be grateful.
Love, Sam ❤️
