Ramily,

June is here – hard to believe. In Lakewood, Washington we have had just a few nice weather days this spring which leaves us looking forward to a great summer beginning June 21st.

Right before summer begins, we will celebrate Father’s Day on June 19th. We will promote this special day, as we have others recently, with our successful “Steak Combo Specials” along with our tasty, frosty craft beer and the US Open golf tournament on TV.

Speaking of tasty beer, I was talking with our beer guru, Dave Leonard, yesterday and we are both amazed at the continued popularity of IPAs. When The Ram began brewing beer in 1995 “hoppy” beers were non-existent. Our lineup then included Blonde Ale, Buttface Amber, Black Cat Honey Stout, Big Red Ale, and Blewsberry which was a blueberry-infused blonde. Around 1999 we gravitated Big Red to Big Red IPA and then later added 71 Pale Ale. Today, a brewery cannot have too many IPAs it seems. One of the constants in the brewery world is definitely “change”.

Last month I mentioned our coming, new menu. Washington and Oregon will see this tasty, new gem arrive on June 15th and June 22nd is the welcome date in Idaho. Thank you to the entire menu team for their valuable contributions. Over the years, I have seen more new menus than I can count and this one had more thoughtful input and smart engineering than I can recall.

Get ready for the Big Bike Summer Giveaway. Our marketing geniuses will come up with a better name than that. I am not going to be a spoiler here. More to come on the details from John and Austin but we have a great promotion planned to grow guest counts and drive Loyalty Club sign-ups.

During the month of June, we say “thank you” to the following team members who celebrate significant anniversaries with the Ram: Noelle Downey (7 years), Jess Burthorn (10 years), Gina Kessner (32 years), Tia Erickson (12 years), Hannah Unger (6 years), Shawna Woods (7 years), Christopher Lam (6 years), Alicia Medina-Azpeitia (15 years), Ty Tran (5 years), and Kelly Van Matre (10 years). Thank you very much!

“It takes as much energy to wish as it does to plan.”

` Eleanor Roosevelt