Tampa Deli Offers Free Dinners To Unemployed Restaurant Workers

TAMPA, FL — In partnership with Maker's Mark and The LEE Initiative, Cass Street Deli has become a relief center for restaurant workers.

The popular North Hyde Park deli at 1331 W. Cass St. announced it will offer free dinners to restaurant workers who have been laid off or whose hours have been reduced.

Dinners are being offered on a first-come, first-served basis. There is a limit of one meal per person unless there is an emergency situation. Essential supplies like paper towels and toilet paper will also be available at the deli.

"Independent restaurants are at the center of the vibrant growth in America," said Cass Street Deli chef Suzanne Crouch. "But now restaurant workers need your help more than ever. If we don’t take a stand and do something now, there will not be an independent restaurant industry to speak of when the coronavirus crisis is over."

The diner will offer to-go dinners seven days a week from 5 to 7 p.m. Dinners will be placed inside the truck of the restaurant worker's vehicle. If the worker doesn't have a vehicle, the dinner will be placed on a table on the east side of the deli. Everyone picking up dinners must stand 6 feet apart in a single-file line starting on Lemon Avenue.

Proof of hospital industry employment, such as a pay stub, is needed to receive meals. However, the deli won't turn anyone in dire need of food away.

The menu this week includes lemon-pepper chicken, Maker's Mark sweet potato mash and braised cabbage.

"Each night, we will pack hundreds of to-go dinners that people can come to pick up and take home," said Crouch. "And we will continue to offer this program until we can no longer financially support it."

The gesture is part of the national Restaurant Workers Relief program started by Louisville chef Edward Lee and his LEE Initiative mentorship program.

The relief effort now includes 18 restaurants across the country that have served more than 100,000 meals to restaurant workers.

In addition to being the first restaurant in Florida to join the Restaurant Workers Relief program, Cass Street Deli, owned by Blind Tiger coffee shop founded Roberto Torres, also runs a lunch box program that allows the community to donate meals to health care workers and first responders.

For a donation, a lunch of half a sandwich, bag of chips, coleslaw and a pickle will be presented with a "thank you" card bearing the donor's name to a front-line worker. Those interested in making a lunch box donation can call 813-609-6316.

Cass Street Deli is also supporting restaurant workers by offering "Support Tampa Hospitality Workers" T-shirts featuring the Tampa favorite, the Cuban sandwich, for $20. All proceeds go to out-of-work hospitality employees. To purchase T-shirts, click here.