Coronavirus News
3 new charitable things Dallas restaurants are doing in COVID-19 times
Fighting back against the coronavirus pandemic, Dallas' hospitality industry continues to do generous deeds, with restaurant operators, chefs, and food & beverage professionals stepping up to help others.
We have three new examples that include feeding others in the industry, feeding emergency responders, and contributing their expertise to a charitable cookbook.
Here's the list:
Feeding unemployed restaurant workers
A Dallas restaurant company has launched a new program serving 1,400 free meals each week to restaurant industry members who are unemployed or negatively impacted by the COVID19 pandemic and recession.
DRG Concepts, which owns downtown Dallas restaurants such as Dallas Fish Market, has established the Community Kitchen, a long-term program inspired by its work with 7740 Dallas — which stands for 7 hospitals, 7 restaurants, 40 sponsorship — a nonprofit launched in April to deliver food to COVID-19 hospital wards.
DRG Community Kitchen first hosted "Taco Tuesdays" in April to provide 200 free meals to unemployed restaurant-industry workers. They also delivered meals weekly to 7740's seven hospital COVID 19 teams.
Their new Community Kitchen effort is serving 1,400 meals to restaurant and hospitality industry members. The meals began July 6, and will be served at noon each day at Chop House Burger. A typical meal might be achiote chicken with cilantro rice and corn.
A donation from Hoque Global is what is making this possible. Hoque Global is the investment group founded by Mike Hoque, who also founded DRG Concepts. DRG CEO Nafees Alam says in a statement that they know how valuable a nourishing meal can be.
"Our work with serving meals since April and our deliveries with 7740 Dallas to the COVID19 teams has fueled our inspiration and understanding, and our work to raise funds and make more meals possible to serve needs," Alam says.
7740 founder Jacob Tindall says that their launch to provide meals to frontline workers in health care allowed them to understand the marketplace and needs.
"The 7740 program now expands to serve the frontline workers of the restaurant and hospitality industry, who also have been severely impacted by the economic downturn," Tindall says. "We are so inspired by DRG Concepts' willingness to step up and lead and work with us on providing help wherever there is also real need."
They'll take donations at www.7740Dallas.com.
Charitable cookbook
The Dallas 24 Hour Club, a program helping people combat drug and alcohol addiction, has a new COVID-19 friendly benefactor.
The organization previously was the beneficiary of an in-person event called the Dallas All-Star Chef Classic, which raised funds to provide safe, sober transitional living for homeless men and women seeking a new life away from drugs and alcohol.
This year, they've produced a cookbook featuring recipes from Dallas chefs titled, Cooking At Home: A Collection Of Recipes Created By Dallas’ Top Chefs From Their Home To Yours. That is a long title.
The book includes more than 40 recipes from a who's who of Dallas chefs, chaired by Anastacia Quiñones-Pittman (José) and Eric Dreyer (Ellie's), including Sebastien Archambault (The Mansion on Turtle Creek), Jon Bonnell (Bonnell's), Uno Immanivong (Red Stix Asian Street Food), John Kleifgen (Nick & Sam's), Michael McCoy (Cooking with The Real McCoy), Tracy Miller (Local), Janice Provost (Parigi), Stephan Pyles, Kent Rathbun (Rathbun Test Kitchen and Imoto), Luke Rogers (Savor in Klyde Warren Park), Abraham Salum (Salum), Curtis Stone (Georgie by Curtis Stone), Tony Street (Y.O. Ranch Steakhouse), and Manny Vera (Truluck's).
In 2019, the Dallas 24 Hour Club helped more than 600 people get off the streets, find employment, and learn to live a sober life.
You can pre-order the cookbook now, with copies shipping November 1. Cost is $43 with discounts for bulk orders of 20 or more copies. Order at www.betterunite.com/dallas24hourclub-cookbook.
Chicken sandwiches to the rescue
DFW-based quick service chicken restaurant Golden Chick donated more than 700 Big & Golden Chick sandwich meals to five local hospitals to say thank you to hardworking healthcare workers.
The hospitals included Parkland Hospital in Dallas, Baylor Scott and White in Fort Worth, Cook Children’s Medical Center in Fort Worth, Children’s Health in Plano, and Baylor Scott and White in Dallas.
Golden Chick president Jim Stevens says in a statement that it was an honor to be able to giving back to the community.
"Our restaurants across Texas and Oklahoma have donated food and beverages to first responders throughout the pandemic as a small thank you, however this is our largest scale giveback to-date," Stevens says.
Deliveries included the deployment of Golden Chick's new food truck-trailer which delivered sandwiches to Children’s Health Plano on July 1.
Golden Chick debuted a new sandwich called the Big & Golden with a five-ounce, breaded chicken breast, five pickles — not four, not six — Lotta Zing sauce, on two yeast rolls.
A full case of cakes at Pietro's. Photo courtesy of Pietro's