Chattanooga Restaurant Sets Reserved Table in Honor of Five Slain Servicemen: 'It's Their Table

Inside a Texas Roadhouse restaurant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, there’s a table set for four U.S. Marines and a Navy sailor. Sadly, they will never make the reservation — but the restaurant’s gesture is going viral for all the right reasons.

Texas Roadhouse Service Manager Doug Flack, a retired Marine, said the restaurant decided to place a setting to honor each of the fallen servicemen who were killed by Mohammad Youssef Abdulazeez after he opened fire on two military facilities last week.

"We had an inverted mug since they weren't here to partake with us,” he explained to WBIR-TV. “We have salt and lemon on the table to express bitterness and loss. We have a red ribbon for the blood that was shed."

A photo posted on Facebook by the restaurant has since gone viral. Flack said he didn’t anticipate the public attention and insisted he did it for his fellow service members.

"It's been overwhelming how many people have come out of their way to come pay them respect," Flack added. "It's not my table. It's their table.”

"Beautiful," one Facebook user responded.

"Awesome tribute to the fallen Service members, thank you Texas Roadhouse for your beautiful memorial," another wrote.

Patrick Todaro, a marketer with Texas Roadhouse, told WBIR-TV that Flack “did this for his brothers.” He said all of the men killed are heroes and “that’s how they should all be remembered.”

“This is the simplest thing that could be done to show respect because that's what they deserve,” Todaro added.

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