By Kiara Doyal, The Seattle Medium
There is a certain responsibility that comes with helping carry a family legacy forward. For Miceala Thomas, shouldering that responsibility means working a full-time job during the week before spending her nights and weekends at Emma’s BBQ, handling catering requests, managing social media and helping wherever she is needed. Her grandmother, Tess Thomas Anderson, has spent years building Emma’s BBQ around recipes and traditions passed down through their family. Now, as the business works to recover from a major setback, Thomas and her sisters are doing what they can to make sure that legacy continues.
At 77, Anderson is watching that legacy take shape in the hands of another generation. Thomas has become her grandmother’s right hand, a role she chose out of a desire to learn from Anderson and help preserve what she spent years building.
“I’ve always been someone who is naturally curious and studious. I want to learn as much as I can whenever I can,” said Thomas. “And the love that I have for my grandma, I made it a point to be her right hand on purpose.”
That connection was formed long before Thomas began helping run the family business. As a child, she spent holidays alongside her grandmother, smoking meat on the grill and baking in the kitchen. She also remembers visiting her great-grandmother and spending time at the original Emma’s in Bremerton.
“From the time I was a little girl, I was always in the kitchen with her,” said Thomas. “I can remember many years of Thanksgivings and Christmases where I would be the first one up, and I would come downstairs with her and be out on the grill, smoking meat, getting ready for the meal, or we would be in the back in the kitchen baking.”
“I took so much joy in learning, and so much pride in knowing that I was probably one of the last generations to have had my great-grandmother as who she was in life,” Thomas added.
Anderson’s own connection to food began with her mother, Emma Thomas, an exceptional cook whose recipes and influence extended across generations of the family.
“I didn’t have Emma’s per se as my dream in life because my mother was such an exceptional cook,” said Anderson. “That’s just something that came on me because I stayed in the kitchen with her so much and so often that I learned those recipes.”
Many of the recipes used at Emma’s BBQ have been passed down for more than 100 years, reaching back to Anderson’s grandmother. When people ask what kind of barbecue they serve, Thomas said the family has a simple answer: “It’s Emma’s style.”
The meats are smoked low and slow for eight to 12 hours, while the restaurant’s barbecue sauce is made from scratch.
“Our sauce, like everything else that comes out of our kitchen, is made from scratch using the same spice blend that has been passed down for generations from my great-great-grandmother, my grandma’s grandma,” said Thomas.
That tradition can be found throughout the menu, from brisket, ribs and chicken to collard greens, yams, peach cobbler and sweet potato pie.
What began as a family cooking tradition eventually grew into Emma’s BBQ. In 2021, the family landed a life-changing opportunity to operate a concession stand inside Lumen Field, home of the Seattle Seahawks. For Emma’s, it represented a chance to introduce the family’s food to a much larger audience and grow the business well beyond the walls of its Rainier Avenue restaurant.
“We were there operating inside the stadium for four years,” said Anderson. “It was a wonderful opportunity, and we embraced it each and every day, and we looked at it as a wonderful partnership that could be something that could be long-term.”
Emma’s initially operated one concession stand during football season. After that first season, the family was asked whether it could handle an additional stand for the spring soccer season. For approximately the next three and a half years, Emma’s operated two concession stands inside the stadium.
According to Thomas, the family was eventually informed by those overseeing the stadium concessions that Emma’s was one of the top-performing stands.
“That was the good news,” said Thomas.
The bad news was that Emma’s would no longer be a vendor at the stadium.
The family had been preparing for what they believed would be continued opportunities there. In anticipation of serving as a vendor during the 2026 FIFA World Cup, they had invested between $50,000 and $60,000 in new equipment.
“It was very disappointing to us that we weren’t continuing,” said Anderson. “Especially because of what that does to a business. It makes you have to redefine everything very, very quickly.”
According to the family, losing the stadium business resulted in the loss of approximately 65% of Emma’s revenue at the time.
“It was a tremendous shift, a shift that we almost couldn’t recover from at that time,” said Anderson.
Returning their focus to the brick-and-mortar restaurant meant rebuilding a customer base outside the stadium. Anderson said customers who had discovered Emma’s BBQ at the stadium eventually found their way to the restaurant.
“I’d always explain we were here at Little Emma’s before we were there at Lumen Field,” said Anderson. “And the community wrapped its arms around us as they do to this day in love, because that’s what we try to portray.”
Currently, Emma’s BBQ is open three days a week as the family works to rebuild and expand its customer base. While Anderson remains deeply involved, Thomas handles responsibilities ranging from catering requests to media, social media and the restaurant’s website, all while working full time as a case manager.
“From Sunday to Thursday, I work as a case manager full-time,” said Thomas. “But I am also doing all of Emma’s catering requests, all of our media. I’m running point with my sisters, trying to organize our three different social media platforms and our website.”
When her workweek is over, Thomas’s work with Emma’s is not.
“I could be dog-tired working a full week full time, and I still come in Friday night, all day Saturday. I always wanted to make her proud, and I wanted to prove to her and give back to her all of the things that she gave to me,” said Thomas. “I think that the best way to show Tess Thomas your love is to be a seen face and to show up. I just want to lighten as much of her load as I can.”
Other family members also help when and where they can, with a focus on making sure the family business and the legacy behind it will be around for another generation.
For Anderson, that legacy extends beyond Emma’s BBQ. Her father, Albert Thomas, worked in the shipyards during the day and built houses at night, helping lay the foundation for generational wealth in Bremerton. Her mother, Emma, created a different kind of inheritance through the recipes and cooking traditions she passed down.
“I hope that my grandchildren and future generations take and carry on the legacy of Albert and Emma Thomas,” said Anderson. “When you see those things and know where they come from, it gives you a sense of being, a sense of purpose, and a sense of belonging.”
For Thomas, carrying that legacy forward means accepting the demands that come with sustaining a family business.
“Anytime you make the decision to go into business for yourself, and you want for it to be successful, and you want for it to be sustainable,” said Thomas. “It is super busy, but you have to lock in.”
For a family whose story has been passed from Albert and Emma Thomas to their daughter, and now to their grandchildren and great-grandchildren, keeping Emma’s BBQ alive is about more than recovering what was lost at the stadium. It is about preserving what generations of the family worked to build and creating something that can be carried forward by those who come next.
Emma’s BBQ is a participating restaurant in the Pack The House campaign, a 10-week community initiative presented by The Seattle Medium, the Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle and Byrd Barr Place to encourage the community to intentionally support local Black-owned restaurants. For more information about the campaign, participating restaurants and weekly schedule, visit PackTheHouseSeattle.com.
