Nov
20
2009

A restaurant with a difference

When we visited the boys in San Francisco in Summer 2007, a few times we ate at a nearby restaurant. This was a nice restaurant serving good American food.

Except it was a restaurant with a huge difference.

It was also a restaurant that made a huge difference.

It was staffed by former substance abusers, ex-convicts, homeless and others who have hit bottom.

The kitchen staff. The waiting staff. All the staff.

Yet if you didn’t know otherwise, it was a regular restaurant. It was a very good restaurant.

The restaurant was Delancey Street Restaurant

The upstairs of building was their home. The downstairs was their restaurant, their business.

Quoting reviews from their website: We were named one of “San Francisco’s Delicious Dozen” by Jim Wood in Image Magazine’s Dining Issue; we were awarded a “toque” by the prestigious Gault Milleu’s The Best of San Francisco, 2½ stars by San Francisco Chronicle food critic Michael Bauer, and were named “the Friendliest Restaurant in San Francisco” by Zagat when we opened.

The restaurant is just one of the businesses run by the Delancey Street Foundation, often simply referred to as Delancey Street, a non-profit organization based in San Francisco. Other businesses include moving companies, and print shops.

Their website states: All tips are considered donations, and all restaurant proceeds after food costs go directly to house, feed and clothe our residents and teach all skills, values and attitudes needed for a successful drug-free and crime-free life in the mainstream society.

Here in Ireland we could learn a lot from the Delancey Street Foundation.

I think anyhow.

Written by Lily in: General |

6 Comments »

  • Good thinking, Lily

    It’s a great concept and I’d imagine there’s plenty of scope for a similar set-up in Ireland.

    btw While all the mice are away, are the cats going out to play?

    Comment | November 20, 2009
  • That sounds like a great idea, we could definitely do with something like that here.

    Comment | November 20, 2009
  • It would give hope and a reason to BE for so many>

    Comment | November 20, 2009
  • Interesting … I’ll have to check it out.

    Comment | November 21, 2009
  • Steph, yea i loved the concept.

    Cat and mice away. (Budapest and Boston). Got lots done while house quiet. And lots of reading! Peace soon to be broken now but looking forward to their return.

    Marian, I agree with you. I just loved turning the negative on its head

    Grannymar, You are right. And as I said only you were told, you really wouldn’t know. I had such admiration for the people who served us.

    Arianne, well worth a visit. The address is on the weblink. P & J’s apartment was very close to the restaurant. Hope you are enjoying SF.

    Comment | November 22, 2009
  • [...] post is somewhat related to a previous post I wrote here about an unusual restaurant in San [...]

    Pingback | December 23, 2009

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