A welcome extended to everyone

Everyone is welcome at the community dinner Jim Lustig hosts every week at his Greenwood catering company.

Neighbors. Seniors on a fixed income. Homeless people.

And, it turns out, alleged serial arsonists.

"He was here last Thursday night," Lustig said of Kevin Swalwell, the man accused of using a cigarette lighter to ignite 11 arsons in Seattle and Shoreline since June. The fires — all but one in the Greenwood neighborhood — have caused damage totaling nearly $3 million.

Swalwell, 46, who is homeless, was arrested Nov. 13 — the day after Lustig welcomed him through the door of The Upper Crust Catering.

"I don't remember if I hugged him," said Lustig, who likes to embrace or shake hands with everyone who attends the dinners. "But I remember that he was here, and I talked to him."

When Swalwell's picture appeared in the newspaper on Wednesday, the day after his arraignment, Lustig at first didn't realize that the man he had spoken to was the same one King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg would later call an "incorrigible serial arsonist."

"I didn't recognize him right off the bat," Lustig said.

Lustig realizes how strange it sounds to have embraced someone who is accused of destroying so much of his community. To have fed him a meal.

He wonders how much that dinner affected his own fate.

"We weren't serving him to protect the building," Lustig said of Swalwell. "But we were smack dab in the middle of everything, and we didn't get burned out."

He can't think too much about that, though. What matters now is that he holds no malice toward Swalwell.

"Yes, he hurt the community," Lustig said. "But the right thing to do when I met him was to care about him. It is not about vengeance; it's about getting him some help."

Lustig, 55, who lives in Gig Harbor, has owned The Upper Crust for 25 years.

In addition to the community dinners he hosts with the Westminster Community Church, Lustig serves weekly meals to the residents of Tent City III. It's a practice he started when the homeless camp moved to Phinney Ridge Lutheran Church more than two years ago.

"Now we follow them everywhere they go," he said. "We don't just serve people, but stay and talk to them. They're not bad people. The difference is, they haven't had a circle of people around them to help them through the rough times."

And now that his neighborhood is experiencing its own rough times, he is doing all he can.

On Dec. 18, The Upper Crust will host a fundraiser for the Greenwood Fire Relief Fund.

"We need auction items and people to show up," he said.

For all his work, Lustig was nominated as a "King County Hero" in a program sponsored by the Intiman Theatre in concert with its run of Robert E. Sherwood's "Abe Lincoln in Illinois." The play, which closed Thursday night, portrayed critical moments in Lincoln's life.

In nominating Lustig, Mike and Sherry Gaffney praised his generosity in dollars, words and actions, calling him "a light to those experiencing darkness.

"He noticed them," the Gaffneys wrote. "He notices us. And he makes us all feel important."

Lustig waves off the praise.

"You get involved with what's around you," he said. "You have a choice to say yes or no."

Despite these weeks of worry and loss, Lustig will continue to say yes to anyone who shows up at the community dinner.

Neighbors. Seniors on a fixed income. Homeless. And those who are making Greenwood a home again.

Nicole Brodeur's column appears Tuesday and Friday. Reach her at 206-464-2334 or nbrodeur@seattletimes.com.

She's sorry she missed the play.