New S.F. cafe staffed by people with mental illnesses

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | 06/07/2003 | Kevin Fagan

[TenaciousZ]

At Cafe Phoenix, the tidy new cafe on the southeast side of Potrero Hill, you'll find three things on the menu, and the most important one isn't written down.

First there's the gourmet food, from tender chicken pesto to a sirloin burger so juicy it leaps into your mouth. Then there are the prices so low you have to check the map to make sure you're in San Francisco -- $4.95 for the burger, $5.95 for the pesto dish.

And then there is the offering not written: hope for the people who work there, folks with mental problems.

The cafe opened Friday, and except for the chef, it is staffed entirely by mentally ill people who are either homeless or at the risk of becoming that way. It's the latest venture by Hire-Ability, a nonprofit organization that gives vocational training to people with mental illnesses. But, except for the program sign for the cafe, you'd never know there was anything special about this place.

[FITZ]

Wow ---sounds like a nice idea to get homeless people working ---but I don't really know if I'd eat there.

[Ramius]

Yeesh, you'd have to be nuts to work there. :-P

[Uncle Hal]

There has to be a joke here someplace. More feel good stuff from a liberal rag.

[TenaciousZ]

Yep; sometimes a situation just speaks for itself.

[texasbluebell]

"New S.F. cafe staffed by people with mental illnesses"

Considering it's SF, how can you really tell?

[socal_parrot]

"You call this Medium-Well? Are you crazy? Oh...sorry.."

[Ramius]

They're missing a great opportunity to market the heck out of this.

Today's specials:
Fruitcake
Nutburger
Crazyfries

The wait staff periodically replies to a question with "What, do I look like I'm nuts?"

hehehe...

[Carry_Okie]

This seems to be a variation on the Delancy Street Foundation's treatment for drug abusers. They operate a restaurant on Union Street.

[Straight Vermonter]

I never cease to be amazed at the heartlessness of some here on FR. Some of you guys fit the stereotype that those at DU would like to hang on all of us.
So what exactly is it you object to? Is it people striving to do for themselves and get off dependence on the government and others?
I hope you all one day have the pain that comes from having a family member with a mental illness. You people are beneath contempt.

[clamper1797]

You'd have to be crazy to work there

[Senator Pardek]

Agreed - I'd rather be served by those folks than the "normal" SF residents...

[Ramius]

Gee, that's a nice high horse you're on.

By letting a sense of humor work for them, and not taking the world so all-danged seriously, they could make a really wonderful thing out of this. I'm completely on their side and I think it's a great idea.

[FITZ]

LOL!!

[Batrachian]

"I hope you all one day have the pain that comes from having a family member with a mental illness."

This, from one who has so much compassion.

I didn't realize that wishing tragedy on others just to "teach them a lesson" was compassionate.

[FITZ]

I hope you all one day have the pain that comes from having a family member with a mental illness.

I just read the article ---it seems like it might be a good idea ---but obviously some of those homeless in SF are pretty far gone and even you wouldn't want to eat something they might serve you ---it said there are counselors who check in ---this might not be so bad ---but again one guy in the article said everyone working there has "issues". Depends on what kinds of issues.

[nomad]

Are they just slow, or are they crazy? I don`t know if I would eat there if they are just slow, (maybe if they were WELL supervised) but NO WAY would I eat there if they are crazy, what if some loonie wiggs out and poisons the food?

[donmeaker]

At restaurants I usually sit where I can watch the door in. For this place, I would sit where I could see the door to the kitchen.

My first and second wives suffered from depression. I couldnt understand it till I got it. I still cant understand why I can't get started on some mornings, but I at least have a name for it. Seratonin uptake inhibiters help a bit, but I have a side effect: I am much more likely to lose my keys!

So, I cope. I have a joke book, and run through a page or two before I begin work. Seems to help. If it gets really bad, I take a day off work.

So, even for a fellow sufferer, the jokes are still funny!

[Pahuanui]

I've actually just eaten at this establishment, because I have friends who told me about it, and they treat these people.

If I hadn't known about the particulars, it wouldn't have made any impression on me or my dining companions, one way or another.

Yes, there are entertainment possibilities in the very concept of doing something like this, but what I found was completely normal, no one there at the same time as my party was talking about the staff, the media, or the looney hijinks that one might automatically relate in one's head to the people who work there.

All in all, a success, and I'm glad of it. There are far, far too many mentally effed up people in the SF Bay Area who crap in front of commercial storefronts and still think they're 'kings' of, for example, the financial district, for anyone with a lick of sense to criticize this one.