Restaurateur Brandon Edwin Chrostowski aims to change the face of re-entry in the United States for formerly incarcerated adults. In 2007, he founded EDWINS Leadership & Restaurant Institute in Cleveland, Ohio, with the belief that “Every human being, regardless of their past, has the right to a fair and equal future.”
To date, nearly 600 previously incarcerated people have graduated from the institute, a 501(c)(3) organization that offers adults a fresh start in the culinary and hospitality industries.
Some of those graduates are hired to work at the popular EDWINS Restaurant.
“I got a break when I was younger,” said Chrostowski in a phone interview after a meeting in Santa Fe to talk to a group about bringing this concept to their community. “I was arrested, thrown in jail and I was facing five to 10 years in a prison. The judge fortunately gave me probation status. By the grace of God and the color of my skin, I was given this break.”
From there, Chrostowski began his career in Detroit. He received an associate’s degree in culinary arts and a bachelor’s degree in business and restaurant management at The Culinary Institute of America. He also apprenticed in Chicago at Charlie Trotters’ (which closed in 2012) and later worked at Michelin-starred Lucas Carton in Paris, where he learned French culinary skills.
In 2004, he got calls from back home (Detroit, Mich.) that the people he worked alongside in the kitchen were getting murdered or put in prison. Chrostowski said, “There's got to be something I can do to change that for others. And it was a restaurant that's a school – EDWINS. That was the plan.”
EDWINS Restaurant is located in an up-and-coming area of Cleveland. “If you went a block one way, it's not very good,” said Chrostowski. “That's also where our campus, bakery and butcher shop are. So, part of what we do is in a seedier place and the other is in a place right on that fringe.”
Chrostowski is giving back to the community by providing jobs, training, housing and more. EDWINS institute students undergo intensive training and hands-on work experience. They are provided with free housing, legal services, basic medical care, clothing, job coaching and more at EDWINS’ Second Chance Life Skills Center (established in 2016), a 30,000 square foot campus.
“We work in prison, so we have pipelines; we help someone bridge the gap. It's all centered around food. That's the best part about it,” Chrostowski added.
EDWINS is well known for its model. “What we do works; we've worked very hard for many, many years and people responded. It's a great restaurant first, so people come back again and again to experience that,” said Chrostowski. “It's more than a charity mission. It's a great dining experience.”
Chrostowski said his community responded more than he ever would have thought. “It's crazy – the children that give money and volunteer, the adults who give money and volunteer. It's an amazing response.”
Other groups seek to follow their model – “Some want to do a more socially minded business, whether it is re-entry or serving another population that is in need; we help get them to that point,” shared Chrostowski. “Some people do it full blown. Some people take pieces and parts, but every restaurant has got to get hip to the fact that building someone's life and where they want it to go first is what has to happen. And then the job itself is actually second,” he said. “People complain, ‘I can't find help. I can't find help.’ If you start putting your employee's life first and then the job actually second, which sounds crazy for a businessperson, but it's actually what works. That's what I believe all restaurants should be doing and all businesses should be doing.”
Chrostowski does not have plans to expand EDWINS to other cities. “We’ve got the butcher, the baker and the two restaurants plus the campus. So, we're pretty well established in Cleveland,” he added. “We've just opened up the first culinary program in Ohio for at risk youth. We are on tablet programs across the country – about a half million people can view our courses on a tablet if they're incarcerated.”
Chrostowski explained that “The idea is to really continue the great mission, great education, great restaurant experience – keep that up but take the gifts of the visibility we've been given and share with others, especially those that are either young and up and coming or incarcerated and trying to come home. The goal right now is to get that as far and wide as we can and help others connect the dots to build their own [reentry program].”
Chrostowski hopes other restaurants are inspired by his model and do something like his concept of hiring and supporting former inmates. “Any model that’s building a culture around teaching, helping someone out with circumstances of life, is going to succeed,” he said.
In the end, Chrostowski would beg to differ with the industry that there's a labor shortage, as he’s hired plenty of people who need jobs. “I would say there's a good culture shortage, right? The culture inside businesses today is not putting their employees first, their circumstances and where they want to go,” he concluded. “They continue to build the same old machine of ‘work for money, work for money.’ And it is not working. I think we've proved that. So, anyone who starts to take out a model of putting someone's goals and desires first and including those, and then have the work come second, is going to win. And that's why we're winning.”
To learn more about EDWINS Restaurant, Butcher Shop, Bakery and its Leadership Institute, visit edwinsrestaurant.org.
Erin Flynn Jay is a reporter and publicist based in Philadelphia. She’s a Bar & Restaurant contributor, and some of her other writing credits include Next Avenue and Woman’s World, among many others.
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