Dear Friends,

I'm interrupting your regular broadcast of TFB news as told by our owner, Murph Willcott. You see, today is Murph's birthday, so it seemed only fitting to turn the tables on his narration and contemplate on our own daily interactions with him as fearless leader of the restaurant - and Tessa as princess of the realm. Sorry, Murph, it has to be done. Please don't fire me.

I moved to Austin about six years ago and got my first job in town at TFB, waiting tables for the then-BYOB dinner service. Everyone was figuring the whole dinner thing out - Hall Sheriff was still a server buying golf clubs on eBay mid-service; Josh Williams made sandwiches during the day when he wasn't traveling; Ben Decherd helped me reach all the high shelves and kept the jokes comin'; Jess was a shy, behind-the-scenes backwaiter; Dan Freeman was just starting as a line cook; and Betty, well she was being exactly as charming as she is today. Eventually I moved onto other things, but after a few years I returned to Texas French Bread, much like Hall, Josh, Ben and Betty did themselves (Jess and Dan have been tried and true the whole time). But that's the running joke of TFB - no one ever escapes for good.

The thing is, we've all returned because Murph has offered us a pretty incredible place to work. He fosters a community where friends and family are above all else (potentially to our accountant's dismay). He listens to our input and spends serious time considering how to make TFB a place where we all feel comfortable. He regularly shares cool wine with whoever is working, and fills conversation with abstruse music knowledge and Big Lebowski quotes. He supplies a generous number of Borzoi photos to the Instagram community, thus keeping Tessa's modeling career afloat.

So, Murph, thanks for being a cool dude. Happy Birthday.

bon appetit,

whitney