Brandon Chrostowski’s Edwins Leadership and Restaurant Institute has expanded from a single fine French restaurant to include a butcher, a bakery, a daycare center, and housing for the formally incarcerated, who he trains in the field of food service,–over 500 trainees to date. Last week he was honored as a finalist for the prestigious James Beard award, one of only five in the country.
While in Chicago for that recognition, he visited Danville Correctional Center to speak with inmates about his work. His Cleveland Browns-backed educational program uses donated tablets to train over 70,000 of the country’s incarcerated, 20% of all the inmates in the United States, so they have a skillset in the food industry after they have served their time.
His latest idea is the most audacious yet: he’s offering a $250 gift certificate to Edwin’s Restaurant for every gun taken off the street and turned in to the Cleveland Police. CoolCleveland’s Thomas Mulready caught up with this busy and passionate community leader at his flagship restaurant on Shaker Square.
View the video here.
Cleveland, OH 44120