Edwins Restaurant is changing the face of reentry

Posted by Stephen Newton on Jul 24, 2016 in The Film

EDWINS provides expert training for future chefs and hospitality workers, while running a well respected Cleveland restaurant. (Photo: EDWINS)

EDWINS Leadership & Restaurant Institute in Cleveland, Ohio is a unique approach at giving formerly-incarcerated adults a foundation in the hospitality industry  while providing a support network necessary for a successful reentry.

Started by Brandon Chrostowski, a former prisoner, who got a second chance while on probation from a mentoring chef named George. Watching as friends and family cycled in and out of the justice system, like a merry go round, Chrostowski learned culinary arts and the art of hospitality from George so well that he moved to Hyde Park, New York and enrolled in The Culinary Institute of America.  Success followed, from great restaurants like Charlie Trotters in Chicago to a Michelin 3 star in France as well as the elite in NYC.

The lessons Chrostowski learned on his journeys are found throughout EDWINS, including the philosophy of “making it happen with what you have” (Chicago),”hard work has no language”( Paris), it’s not “practice that makes perfect rather perfect practice makes perfect” and “investing in yourself before someone will invest in you” (NYC).

For more about EDWINS please visit http://edwinsrestaurant.org