Baltimore Eatery Skips Restaurant Week to Help Homeless

While most Baltimore restaurants are banking on restaurant week to bring in extra revenue, one owner is using the culinary event for a greater cause. According to Good News Network, Michael Tabrizi, owner of Tabrizi's restaurant, is getting together with local homeless shelters to bring in members of the homeless community to dine at his establishment from July 20 to 25.

Tabrizi's will shut down the restaurant and host special meals for the homeless three times a day as a way of giving back to the neighborhood. Tabrizi explains the decision to Baltimore Magazine: "These people don't only suffer from hunger, but also from hopelessness, they feel that they don't have any dignity anymore. We want them to come in and feel like they're cared for." The restaurant took to its Facebook page to give details about the menu for its "Homeless Restaurant Week."

Tabrizi's/Facebook

Perhaps Tabrizi's act of goodwill was inspired by others doing their part to feed their local homeless community. Texas-based chef Joan Cheever was fined $2,000 for giving away food to a line of hungry homeless people in April, and the pay-it-forward system at Rosa's Fresh Pizza in Philadelphia feeds 30 to 40 homeless individuals per day. And, of course, who can forget the random act of kindness by a 5-year-old at a Waffle House in Alabama, insisting his mom buy dinner for a homeless man outside the restaurant? There was also the Connecticut Starbucks that saw its customers pay-it-forward 1,468 times and the Chick-fil-A pay-it-forward chain that lasted 38 cars.