Smith: Sam’s For Play coming to Graton casino

Sam’s For Play, you may know, is the enigmatic and vaguely naughty name of a pair of beloved Santa Rosa cafes run by Sam Anker and her son, Troy.

For 30 years, Sam’s has been locally renowned for its breakfasts, burgers and neighborliness. There’s the Sam’s on Sebastopol Road and on Cleveland Avenue, and now Sam and Troy will open a third location.

Can you guess where?

At the Marketplace food court inside the Graton casino.

This is an enormous deal for the Ankers, who were shocked when Greg Sarris, the tribal chairman of Graton Rancheria, approached to say the casino just outside of Rohnert Park needs a breakfast spot.

The walk-up counter will be called Sam’s For Play Express. Troy said it’ll fix lunch and dinner, too - “a scaled-down version of our nine-page menu.”

The hours will be long, 11 a.m. to 3 a.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. the other days. The Ankers, who’ll keep their two full-service restaurants, plan to open up in the casino in April.

How’s Troy feeling about this new opportunity? “Motivated, excited, energized!”

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BARE AT BURBANK: An observation came from several folks who saw the story and photos of hazardous-materials workers in protective suits and respirators dismantling the old picket fence at Luther Burbank Home & Gardens.

They asked: If the lead paint is so hazardous as to require costly special handling and disposal, why were so many of the men on the JM Environmental crew not wearing gloves?

Julia Bernstein of the state Department of Industrial Relations finds it a worthy question.

Though she was not familiar with the fence-replacement project and had no idea how much lead the workers were exposed to, she shared the California Code of Regulations requirement that an employer provide gloves to, and assure their use by, employees working amid more than the “permissible exposure limit” of lead.

I checked also with the owner of the Roseville-based hazmat company, John Moore.

“Personally, I like my guys to have full-body protection,” Moore said. But the use of gloves when working with lead-based paint, he added, “is not a rule.”

So he views it as a matter of personal choice if an employee on a job such as the removal of the Burbank Home fence wears protective gear on virtually every part of his body except the ones that come in direct contact with the paint.

Moore did say that his workers all know that when they’re on a job that involves exposure to lead, they need to wash their hands before lunch.

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CHRISTMAS IS OVER, but not the wintry weather. The season of caring is still on, too.

Lars Kristensen, 8 years old and a third-grader at Sebastopol’s Brook Haven School, read a story that told him about children who are homeless. He yearned to do something to help such kids.

His teacher, Greg Corby, liked the idea of a post-holiday coat drive. The class is doing quite well at gathering new or gently used coats, sweaters and jackets for youngsters and teens.

The students would be happy to have more coats dropped off at their school on Valentine Avenue. They’ll go to Catholic Charities’ Family Support Center shelter.

Chris Smith is at 707-521-5211 and chris.smith@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @CJSPD.