Welcome to the Steaming Tender Restaurant located in Palmer, MA also known as the Town of Seven Railroads. The building was purchased by Blake and Robin Lamothe in 1987 and opened as the restaurant in 2004. During the 17-year restoration project they had two daughters, Scarlet and Linea Lamothe, who are still involved in the day to day operations you see here today.
The Steaming Tender is my second home – literally! I was born in 2002 right before the restaurant opened in 2004. When I was about 7 years old, I was helping the servers bussing & cleaning tables. Once I got older, I attended a global private school from sixth to twelfth grade, which took up a lot of my time – with sports, academics, & extra circulator activities. I was able to make relationships with people all over the world, take entrepreneurship classes, find out what I wanted to do before I graduated high school. Since I was graduating high school during the pandemic in 2020, it made me think harder of what I wanted to do. My parents are my role models. They introduced to me a ‘no-quit’ attitude and to never give up. My parents have been perfect ‘cheerleaders’, keeping me motivated to pursue my career with the family businesses. I can see my parents & sister every day and do what I love.
Whenever someone tells you how they have been super busy with work, we automatically interpret this as being a bad thing. No one associates work with sunshine, love, happiness, or any positive feelings. These past few years, the word “work” has had such a negative meaning behind it. Some people dread on going to “work”. In the song ‘Vacation’ by Dirty Heads …“I’m on vacation. Every single day ’cause I love my occupation”, is the true meaning on how I feel. At the Steaming Tender, we are one big family, known as “The Tender Fam”. Every single day, I can establish new goals, laugh, smile, create new memories, build connections with guests who dine here & invest in the future of “Lamothe Block”. My next goal is to open a Café to bring people together, build relationships, all while being in a relaxing environment. I am hoping to serve specialty coffees, juices, smoothies & to open late night for specialty craft cocktails.
I was nine years old when we opened the Steaming Tender Restaurant. I remember painting picnic tables, practicing on the front register, and doing anything I could before opening day on July 17th, 2004. We first began as walk – up service with tables outside. All orders were placed at the ticket window and I would call the orders over the loud speaker, for example, “Order 29 is now ready for departure”, which was one of my favorite memories!
Overtime the original waiting room was cleared and restored for indoor dining. My parents were always restoring and expanding to beautify the building and the surrounding area. I am grateful to have been involved in the changes over the years. I worked at the restaurant all throughout high school and college starting in every position imaginable. During my years at Western New England University, I took some time to focus on my studies and had the opportunity to study abroad. I spent six months studying abroad in Lille, France and had the chance to travel to nine other countries in Europe, The U.K. and Africa. The cultural experiences were eye opening, and the means of travel was such an ease. When I returned home, I joined the International Club at my school to help them experience American culture and its history. The number one issue was getting a group of people from one location to another. The simplicity of travel over in Europe was so easy to maneuver from one place to another whether it be from city to city or from one country to another. My goal is to make public transportation in across our state more accessible. My father has been working on restoring passenger rail services for the past thirty years and
I am trying to do the same. I have worked alongside Senator Eric Lesser to restore passenger service to Massachusetts through his West – East Rail project. Palmer is listed as a rail stop in the initiative and we hope to make it a reality.
DEPARTING:
The Lamothe Family & Steaming Tender Crew
