Differing abilities, delicious food: Abilities Diner provides inclusive job opportunities

Juliann Fitzgerald has gathered an elite task force to run Abilities Diner and Bakery in West Eugene.

Grace Cooley, her front-of-house worker, meticulously takes orders and runs them out to customers at lightning speed. Rob Emery, her head chef, cooks orders to perfection, just the way Abilities customers like them. Victoria Banks seamlessly oscillates between working in the kitchen and the bakery.

All of the workers employed by Fitzgerald also have disabilities.

Cooley has been diagnosed with autism and ADHD. Banks has been diagnosed with an anxiety disorder and dyslexia. And Emery struggles in a traditional work environment because of his social skills.

However, Fitzgerald doesn’t see these diagnoses as hindrances to her employees' service. If anything, she sees them as superpowers.

“These are strengths, not weaknesses,” she said. “[Cooley’s] ADHD gives her the energy to run the length of this place, and her autism keeps her focused; she’s just meticulous about every little thing.”

Fitzgerald opened Abilities Diner and Bakery five months ago with a mission: to pay and employ people in Eugene who have disabilities. She was inspired to start Abilities when she saw how hard it was for her foster son Alex Perez, who also has a disability, to find a paid job.

“We would go through different programs, and they all offered three or four-month-long unpaid internships where he might get hired at the end of it,” she said. “At the end, they would always say ‘We’ve decided not to keep him on.’ It was just unpaid labor.”

Fitzgerald decided to employ Perez herself and started running a bakery out of her garage. She, her foster son, and one other employee would bake all week and sell their pastries out of the garage on the weekend.

When word got out about Fitzgerald’s business model, people started coming to her and asking if she could employ their friends and family members with disabilities.

“Everybody wanted a job, and I was like ‘my garage isn’t big enough,” she said.

So the property search began. When Fitzgerald saw Falling Sky’s old location on Blair Boulevard open up, she knew it was the perfect spot.

“There’s a kitchen for baking and a kitchen for the diner to run out of, and I thought, that’s it,” she said.

Abilities has been serving Eugenians bakery goods and diner fare for five months. Some of their most popular menu items are the chicken fried steak, eggs benedict, burgers, and wraps. Cakes, cookies, and all sorts of pastries are made fresh daily in the bakery section of the restaurant.

“The food here is consistently amazing” Viola Tabor, a regular customer at Abilities, said. She and her co-parent Jim Tabor come to Abilites from East Springfield at least once a week.

“I’m a diabetic, and I can get what I need for my health here,” she said. “Sometimes the sugar-free sweets are so good I think they gave me the wrong one.”

Viola orders a scramble a-la-carte or a veggie omelet, and Jim usually orders “The Professional”, a dish with steak, eggs, home fries, and a biscuit.

Viola and Jim like the family atmosphere at Abilities as well.

“You come in here and they know you by name. They’re great with kids. They have things for kids to play with,” Viola said. “It’s like you’re in 'Cheers.'”

Fitzgerald worked hard to cultivate that atmosphere for her customers. She and her employees have put a lot of energy into making Abilities and friendly and accessible place to eat, from painting the ceiling beams yellow to open up the space to bringing in booths where elderly customers can eat comfortably.

“I want people to come in for the food, and leave feeling like family,” she said.

Abilities is located in the 8th Street Parking Plaza at 790 Blair Boulevard. The restaurant is open from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. every day and opens for dinner from 5-10 p.m. on Friday and Saturday.

Samantha Pierotti is the food, drinks, and "things to do" reporter at the Register-Guard. With restaurant recommendations or tips on local happenings, you can contact her at spierotti@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Register-Guard: Differing abilities, delicious food: Abilities Diner provides inclusive job opportunities