Why did Stanley & Seafort’s saw legs off dozens of new chairs, throw them away?

There they were. Dozens of seemingly brand-new dining room chairs, piled haphazardly in the parking lot of a Tacoma restaurant — Stanley & Seafort’s, one of the city’s oldest and most well-known, with sweeping views of Commencement Bay and the Tideflats from its perch on McKinley Hill. Could it be the dumpster-dive discovery of the year?

If you like almost falling over while you eat, then yes.

If you like your chairs with four even legs (or if you think a piece of the Oscars red carpet is a better story of one man’s trash, another’s treasure) then no.

Tacoma-based TikTok creator Emma Semingson, who often posts about thrifting but not necessarily dumpster-diving, shared a video Tuesday morning of the discarded chairs: a contemporary bistro-style with pretty dark wood and medium-gray cushions from Rak Chairs, a manufacturer of chairs and tables for restaurants and hospitality businesses based in Calabasas, California, just northwest of Los Angeles. In her narration, Semingson says she was driving past the restaurant, 115 E. 34th St. just south of downtown, and noticed the peculiar pile.

“I’m not usually a dumpster-divey kind of person,” she says in the video, “but I’ll go for it.”

Upon closer inspection, she realized that likely every single chair had one of its legs sawed to be shorter than the rest, effectively rendering the chairs unusable — at least without some tools and patience.

The camera then pans to a large plastic bag — the type that would wrap a piece of furniture — on the pavement, full of the sawed-off legs.

“All of this is just gonna go to your local landfill,” she says. “R.I.P., I was going to get new dining chairs.”

The News Tribune reached out to Stanley & Seafort’s for comment Wednesday morning. The restaurant, which has served Tacoma in one form or another since 1971 and is currently owned by Houston-based Landry’s Inc., does not open until 3 p.m., and the phone call led to voicemail.

In an emailed statement, Landry’s chief operating officer Shah Ghani confirmed that the chairs had been “found to have a manufacturing defect.”

“The manufacturer replaced them and directed us to responsibly dispose of the originals, as they could not be safely reused or repaired,” he said.

Semingson’s TikTok video has amassed nearly 800,000 views. It was picked up by at least one X account with more than 1 million followers, Wall Street Apes, known for sharing conspiracy theories and extremist right-wing talking points.

Many commenters on Semingson’s original post wondered why the chairs couldn’t have been donated to a church, school or secondhand stores that often take commercial overflow such as Goodwill or Habitat for Humanity. Others surmised — correctly, it turns out — that perhaps the chairs had been recalled for safety reasons and had to be ruined. Semingson acknowledged that possibility in response to comments on her page.

There does not appear to be any recent reference on the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission recall page to a chair that matches the description of Stanley & Seafort’s apparently defective wooden bistro chairs. The most recent commercial chair recall was for a powder-coated aluminum outdoor chair from Lancaster Table and Seating, produced in China.

In a follow-up video posted to TikTok later on Tuesday, Semingson shows her husband Cody trying to sit in the busted chair, investigating for signs of rot or pests, and reviewing the bottom of the seat for manufacturing information. Rak Chairs’ website does not seem to list a similar chair, but the company also offers custom restaurant and hotel furniture.

Emails to Rak Chairs were not immediately returned. The listed phone number connects to Blizon, which, according to its website, is a subsidiary of Goodco LLC also based in Calabasas that sells “the original restaurant table side hanger.” The automatic phone message leads to a spam promotion for “a free medical alert device.”

Landry’s did not answer questions about when it had purchased the chairs, whether they had been used in the Tacoma restaurant or when the company became aware of the defect. The spokesperson did confirm that Stanley & Seafort’s now has new chairs.