As a follow-up to the currently-headlining diary about the Iraqi restaurant receiving love from Vets for Peace, a small blurb in the food section of the online St. Paul Pioneer Press talks about a Twin Cities restaurant offering free food. Follow over the orange baguette:
According to the article:
Here's a deal that's hard to beat. Bayport BBQ serves free red beans and rice at lunch and dinner. No strings attached. You serve yourself at the front counter.
Chef/owner Chris Johnson says he's doing it as a community service in this sluggish economy. He makes a few gallons of beans and rice every day, and when it's gone, it's gone. People are loving it.
"It's a good meal," he says. "We're cooking in our pork broth, and we add plenty of our sausage."
Chris Johnson is also a blues impresario who has produced a number of Deep Blues Festivals involving live acts as well as film viewings. I'm not sure if he's still mounting whole music festivals, but live music seems to play an important role in the restaurant's vibe.
A local tavern/biker bar here in Schenectady used to offer a free brunch on Sundays, but had to discontinue it earlier in 2011 because it was getting to be too expensive.
According to Marv Cermak, who offers slice-of-life observations about Schenectady for the Albany Times Union,
This bad news about the program's demise spread from coast to coast like wildfire once the AP put it out. Some of the nation's largest newspapers and TV outlets hopped on the story.
[The owner] recalled through the years I had written a story and a couple column items about the freebee. We hoped the Times Union coverage would stimulate spin off stories by other media outlets because he needed help funding the project.
Unfortunately, no other news outlet thought Birch's good works were newsworthy.
Well, I'm here to plug the Bayport BBQ's good works.
Like the Iraqi restaurant diary and the K-Mart Secret Santa stories of Christmas 2011 show, little kindnesses do add up.