For a guy who has a restaurant opening in a couple of weeks, Chad Houser is remarkably calm. In the run-up to the official opening on January 28, Houser's staff are putting together recently delivered bar stools, polishing silverware, and installing the custom-built chef's table.
The veteran chef of Dallas institutions like Parigi, Houser has launched many restaurants, but his current project, CafÉ Momentum, is unlike any other eatery in the country. From the first day that his new restaurant opens in downtown Dallas, it will be staffed mostly by young men who have been incarcerated before reaching their 18th birthday.
"If someone gave me a gazillion dollars and told me I could hire anyone in the world, I would still hire these guys," says Houser. "These guys" refers to the program's 50 interns, all directed to CafÉ Momentum through Dallas County Youth Village, a court-ordered residency program for juvenile, male non-violent offenders at high risk of reoffending. "These are the kids who have been discarded by society and the system," Houser says. "Guys who everyone has already written off."
CafÉ Momentum was born several years ago after a friend of Houser's, a Youth Village employee, encouraged him to participate in an ice-cream fundraiser at the Dallas Farmer's Market.
"I walked in with these preconceived notions about what these kids were going to be like," says Houser. "And they blew those away. They were saying 'Yes, Chef' to me, and were just really excited about cooking."
[For more of this story, written by Amy McCarthy, go to http://www.citylab.com/work/20...cond-chances/384511/]
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