By Tim Grigsby
After checking into Dallas 24 Hour Club, the kitchen was a safe, sober haven where I could eat and be immersed in recovery. Some of my best friends today are people I met in The Hubcap Café. I have a special love for The Hubcap Café; It’s is the heartbeat of Dallas 24 Hour Club.
The purpose of The Hubcap Café is to provide new residents of Dallas 24 Hour Club with three nutritious meals per day for the first 30 days, in addition to selling inexpensive, quality meals to the community and residents. The Hubcap Café also provides a great place for fellowship and 12-Step work. The Hubcap Café is legendary and anyone who has ever been to The 24 knows it. Many homeless individuals come to the kitchen to eat a half-eaten pancake – sometimes it is the only meal they’ve had in days. The unwritten rule is to leave your uneaten food, because someone in need will eat it.
Even though the main objective of The Hubcap Café is to provide food for new residents: coffee and oatmeal for breakfast, a sack lunch of peanut and jelly sandwich, chips or snack, and a hot meal for dinner, the Hubcap Café also employs four residents or alumni, which enables training or a new job skill, plus it allows Dallas 24 Hour Club to employ a person in need of a job. This position can be placed on a resume and provides a reference for our staff for future employment. It also gives the employee job skills in the restaurant industry, plus an opportunity to meet people in the industry to be placed after their employment with The Hubcap Café. The cooks also serve as help to a newly sober individual. They are often the first person someone seeking help will talk with and they are available to help a newcomer get plugged into recovery.
Beans and rice have been a staple for the nightly meal at no cost for residents since the Henderson location of Dallas 24 Hour Club. The serving of beans and rice started when a contractor hired a large group of new residents for day labor. He noticed that the guys helping him were hungry, so he offered to provide beans and rice for all the residents to make sure that his guys at a hot meal at night.
Steak night was started to bring awareness to Dallas 24 Hour Club and to invite people in recovery to meet and possibly help the residents. It also serves as a small fundraiser to help The Hubcap Café be able to give new residents meals and keep our prices down for everyday food. Every steak purchased provides roughly three meals for a newly sober resident of Dallas 24 Hour Club.
Our new menu, which was released in January, is fantastic and offers healthy options in addition to good old fashioned comfort food. Many people meet their friends at The Hubcap Café once or twice a week to enjoy fellowship, strong coffee, and great food. The Hubcap Café is open from 6:00 am to 10:00 pm, 365 days per year. I encourage you to come try our food and enjoy the fellowship. You won’t be disappointed!
Tim Grigsby is the COO of Dallas 24 Hour Club.