Tabrizi's - Humanity over Profit #AtOZChallenge

The 2015 Baltimore riots lasted for nearly a month with hundreds of businesses damaged and a state of emergency being declared for weeks. As the city limped back to normalcy, restaurant owners decided to host Baltimore's Restaurant Week to woo customers back and make up for their losses.

Micheal Tabrizi had a different idea. The owner of Tabrizi's - a fancy fine dining restaurant that has won awards for 6 consecutive years for their hosting of weddings - decided he wanted to cater to the welfare of Baltimore's most vulnerable people rather than focus on his business.

So he closed Tabrizi's to the public during the 6 day period of Baltimore's Restaurant Week!

Instead, he partnered with local shelters with one sole purpose - to feed the homeless and the displaced for free for 6 days (from July 20 to July 25, 2015). He even arranged for bus transportation to and from the shelters to his restaurant.

In addition to losing revenue by turning his back on paying customers during the key Baltimore Restaurant Week, Micheal Tabrizi spent $20,000 from his own pocket to ensure everything went smoothly and the homeless enjoyed the finest dining experience of their lives.

Over the course of the week, Tabrizi's fed over 1300 homeless people at its white linen restaurant.

The menus included Chicken cordon bleu in sage cream sauce, spring salads, sparkling apple cider (served in the finest champagne flutes) and ice creams for dessert over three daily shifts.

"I just wish people would treat the homeless in a different way. 
People should remember it's always good to hear kindness 
and it's important to look people in the eye. 
The homeless feel less human -- like they're invisible. 
They just want to be respected.”
- Micheal Tabrizi

His kindness won the hearts of the people of the aching city of Baltimore. In the end, more than nine hundred people from all strata of society came in to volunteer their aid as servers for Homeless Restaurant Week with others donating everything from bread and chicken to fresh local produce to help Tabrizi's out.

His restaurant staff did their bit, refusing to take payment for their services during the week. Even competing restaurants chipped in, lending their time to come and serve food at Tabrizi's!

My dad used to always say, ‘You can’t control what people do 

and say, but you can control how you act.’ My reaction 

is bringing people together and showing them that I care.”

- Micheal Tabrizi

Why I want you to remember Tabrizi's

It is easy to forget those less fortunate than ourselves when we are going through a bad phase. Micheal Tabrizi instead chose to care for them, putting aside his own losses to give the homeless dignity and remind them that they were loved.

"These people don’t only suffer from hunger, but also from hopelessness, 

they feel that they don’t have any dignity anymore. We want them 

to come in and feel like they’re cared for."

- Micheal Tabrizi

You can witness the magic of a kind heart here in the video below:

This is part of my #AtoZChallenge where I will be focusing on Real Life Heroes: Shining Examples of Kindness and Compassion. You can find other real-life heroes here.