LOS ANGELES RESTAURANT CHARITIES: CHARITABLE OUTLOOKS
By David Lansing
For dineLA.com
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Suzanne Goin |
“I don’t think there is any other business that gets as many requests for donations as a restaurant,” admits Suzanne Goin, chef owner of Lucques in West Hollywood and A.O.C. Winebar in Los Angeles. “We literally get two or three requests per day,” says the James Beard Foundation regional award winner for “Best Chef."
She’s not complaining, mind you, just trying to explain why it is that most chefs — herself included — find it makes more sense to focus on one or two favorite causes rather than spreading themselves thin. “My business partner Caroline Styne and I both lost a parent to cancer so that is obviously a big one for us,” she says, adding that “as parents of four fortunate kids we feel drawn to doing something for less fortunate youngsters as well.” Goin is on the board of Vintage Hollywood, which benefits United Friends of Children and Save the Children, with a specific focus on Southern California foster kids.
A family history of cancer also explains why Joe Miller, owner of Joe’s in Venice, is willing to get involved in almost “anything to do with treating children’s cancer.” Miller’s son was diagnosed with acute lymphocytic leukemia when he was three. Now 10, the boy has been in remission for seven years. "When he was ill, the Make-A-Wish Foundation sent him to New York, so I’m also very happy to work with them whenever I can,” he says.
Many Los Angeles chefs are involved with Share Our Strength (SOS), a nationwide charity whose goal is to make sure no child in America goes hungry. “It scares me to think that while I’m working to give my customers a very pleasurable meal there are so many kids out there who have a hard time just getting enough to eat every day,” says Matthew Accarrino, chef de cuisine, Craft Los Angeles. Accarino also supports the LA Tap Project, a UNICEF fundraiser to bring clean drinking water to children. Craft is just one of the dozens of Los Angeles restaurants, including Ca’Brea, Angelini Osteria, BOA Steakhouse and Kabuki, where diners can pay a dollar for tap water with all proceeds going to the Tap Project.
Chef Neal Fraser of Grace and BLD on Beverly Boulevard puts a bit of a green spin on his favorite charity, SOS’s Taste of the Nation. He’s been cooking for the event for 13 years and always tries to nudge the fundraiser towards sustainable foods and products. “I personally try to always cook something that is as sustainable as possible,” he says. “This year I cooked two whole Duroc pigs, a heritage breed, from the Modesto area. Cooking the whole animal emphasizes the use of the whole product, not just the prime cuts.”
Also thinking green when participating in charitable events are chef owners Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger of Border Grill and Ciudad. “Cool Comedy, Hot Cuisine” is an annual fund-raiser Milliken and Feniger started in 1988 to find a cure for scleroderma, a chronic disease of the connective tissue that afflicted Feniger’s college roommate (she died in 2002). The event attracts entertainers such as Jay Leno, Robin Williams and Ellen DeGeneres. While all the food and beverages for the event are donated, Feniger realizes that there’s a lot of trash that ends up in landfills, so the goal now is to use bio-degradable products as much as possible and to recycle.
Feniger and Milliken find that their ability to make a difference in a big way (their scleroderma research fundraiser annually raises $500,000 to a million dollars, 90% of which goes to medical research) is one of the joys of being a restaurateur. Yes, they get asked to donate to hundreds of worthy causes every year, admits Feniger, but being in the restaurant business also makes it easier to give back to the community. “I’m as passionate about the charitable organizations we’re involved with as I am about our restaurants,” she says.
A.O.C. Winebar, 8022 W. 3rd St., Los Angeles, 323.553.6359
Angelina Osteria, 7313 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles, 323.297.0070
BLD, 7450 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles, 323.930.9744
BOA Steakhouse, 101 Santa Monica Blvd., Santa Monica, 310.899.4466
Border Grill, 1445 4th St., Santa Monica, 310.451.1655
Ca’ Brea, 346 S. La Brea, Los Angeles, 323.938.2863
Ciudad, 445 S. Figueroa St., Los Angeles, 213.486.5171
Craft Los Angeles, 10100 Constellation Blvd., Los Angeles, 310.279.4180
Grace Restaurant, 7360 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles, 323.934.4400
Joe’s Restaurant, 1023 Abbot Kinney Blvd., Venice, 310.399.5811
Kabuki, 20940 Ventura Blvd., Woodland Hills, 818.704.8700
Lucques, 8474 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles, 323.656.6277
