Advertisement

Baltimore restaurant to serve only homeless for a week

Michael Tabrizi plans to serve the Baltimore's homeless people during the city's restaurant week.

Baltimore’s ‘restaurant week’ is a perfect time for businesses to draw in new customers and for locals to try delicious meals on the cheap.

One restaurant owner hopes to serve anywhere from 900 to 1000 guests during the week-long event. But they won’t be paying patrons: they’re all going to be members of the city’s homeless population.

Michael Tabrizi, the owner of ‘Tabrizi’s’ doesn’t think this is time to “promote business.” Instead, considering all that’s happened in Baltimore this year, he thinks “it would be better to do something for the city to unite the people.”

“It isn’t about money right now. We’ve done restaurant week before and we know the numbers, but right now it’s more important to promote the welfare of the city and its residents,” Tabrizi told Baltimore Magazine.

He asked local residents to volunteer and help him organize what he calls a “Homeless Restaurant Week,” reports the Baltimore Sun. And now, he’s got more help than he needs.

So much so, in fact, that he doesn’t want to turn volunteers away. As a result, some volunteers will sit down with the homeless guests over dinner.

The idea, he said, came to him after he had a brief encounter with a homeless person who he ended up inviting to the restaurant.

“I drove on, thinking to myself, ‘What about all of the others?’” he said. “That’s when I decided to feed a thousand people.”

The restaurant will be closed to the public during this five-day fiesta so that his staff can focus solely on feeding the homeless decadent and well-rounded meals, reports Baltimore Magazine.

“These people don’t only suffer from hunger, but also from hopelessness; they feel like they don’t have any dignity anymore,” Tabrizi said. “We want them to come in and feel like they’re cared for.”

The event runs from July 24 to August 2, although the “Homeless Restaurant Week” will be from July 20-25.