When I first met Brandon Chrostowski about eight years ago he was the head sommelier at Zack Bruell’s L’Albatros restaurant in University Circle. The gentleman I was having lunch with knew we both were passionate about reentry so he introduced us. Before lunch was over Brandon had told me about his vision for Edwins Leadership and Restaurant Institute.
Knowing from years of experience how difficult it is to labor in the field of prisoner reentry, my first reaction was, “Dude, you’re taking on a huge mission.”
Since he — similar to I — had once run afoul of the law but were able to put our lives back together, he — again, similar to I — wanted to help individuals returning home from a period of incarceration. His plan was to go into prisons and teach kitchen skills to prisoners, and then employ them at the restaurant upon their release from incarceration. His plan worked to perfection and now many of the finest restaurants in town employ graduates of Edwins.
A few days ago Brandon took another giant step: He opened Edwins Butcher Shop in a formerly bleak storefront on Buckeye at E. 130th Street, thus revitalizing an area that, without his vision, energy and passion, would no doubt have remained vacant for another couple of decades, or at least until the building was torn down. Additionally, the butcher shop sits right around the corner from a pair of apartment buildings Brandon had renovated a few years ago to provide housing for his trainees. Providing housing so that individuals don’t have to go back to the old neighborhoods that failed them in the first place upon their release can be key to successful reentry.
Nothing, and I mean nothing, slows down the irrepressible Brandon. Last year he pioneered the opening of the Sérénité Restaurant & Culinary Institute on West Liberty Street in Medina. According to the establishment’s website, “The mission of Sérénité is to instill leadership skills in men and women recovering from drug and alcohol addiction through an education in the culinary arts. Our aim is to change the face of recovery through food and hospitality.” Thus he is helping to solve a heroin problem that conservatives in Medina County would swear doesn’t even exist, at least not in their neck of the woods.
When it comes to reentry, a lot of people talk the talk, but few actually do what Brandon Chrostowski does: He also walks the walk. But if you want to keep up with him you’d better be ready to move at lightning speed, since the key to the success of the operations he spearheads is that he’s willing to work harder than anyone else.
Edwins Butcher Shop is open Monday through Friday 11am-7pm, Saturday 10am-2pm, and Sunday 11am-3pm. Now, unless you’re a vegan, you’re going to be buying meat anyway, so why not buy it from a local shop where the prices are fantastic, the selection exceeds virtually any other meat market in town, and your dollars will be doing some good in terms of helping a social enterprise that is helping people?
This is called a Win/Win/Win.
From CoolCleveland correspondent Mansfield B. Frazier mansfieldfATgmail.com. Frazier’s From Behind The Wall: Commentary on Crime, Punishment, Race and the Underclass by a Prison Inmate is available in hardback. Snag your copy and have it signed by the author at http://NeighborhoodSolutionsInc.