Dinner for culinary advice to a homeless man, Feb. 22

Dinner and culinary advice for a homeless man.

Your are invited to a soul food dinner in the Lincoln Park neighborhood on Thursday, Februrary 22, 2007 at Lawry's Tavern, 1028 W. Diversey (just west of Sheffield) . The event starts at 6PM but people can come later to eat. Cost is $10. Cash bar.

Everett, a homeless man and Streetwise Vendor, is trying to start a micro-enterprise. He cooks dinner at Lawry's Tavern once a month and sells tickets to the dinner.

His homemade specialities include BBQ ribs, Fried Chicken, Catfish, and Red Beans and Rice.

I told him about LTH forum and he asked me to post about his dinner in it. He also is asking LTH forum members to come to give him advice on how to improve his cooking and the dining experience, and how to expand this venture so he can leave homelessness.

I think it would be great for LTH members and their friends to come out to support this bootstrap effort, to have good time and a good meal, and to share your knowledge.

If you want more info, Everett's phone number is 773-484-6563; Lawry's Tavern phone number is 773-348-9711

Everett was once a bouncer on Division Street and worked with Mr. T. He has lots of good stories.

-- Nevets

it sounds like a worthy cause and a good meal. i'll try to be there. justjoan

A sign of modern technology: homeless man with a phone number.

pdaane wrote:A sign of modern technology: homeless man with a phone number.

I think this is probably more common than you might think. Cellphones are cheap, and they do provide some measure of connection -- if you're looking for work, it's good to be able to give potential employers a way to contact you.

So he can talk to this guy.

back to the point of the original post....are any of you interested in joining me thursday night at the tavern? justjoan

pdaane wrote:A sign of modern technology: homeless man with a phone number.

It is not like they are expensive. I buy the Virgin Mobile phone for $19 at WalMart and am required to top-off the minutes at $20/qtr. That works out to about $7/ month. I only use the blasted thing for calls home and to AAA for road service. (and it was a savior when my beater died in Milwaukee in teh sub-zero weather.)

justjoan wrote:back to the point of the original post....are any of you interested in joining me thursday night at the tavern? justjoan

I'm definitely interested. Consider me a "maybe" for now, but I think I can do it.

joe, i hope we can meet up at the tavern. i'm coming with a friend-hope to arrive a little before 7. maybe we can exchange david hammond's secret LTH hand signal to locate each other. (make an 'L' with your hand and tap 3 times on your stomach--was that an 'L' for LTH or for 'loser'?) anyway, i think it'll be an adventure. justjoan

So, while justjoan was unable to attend, I made it over to Lawry's last night with a friend from work and ran into another LTH'r there.

Despite the fact that the invitation here, at least, is in terms of "advice," I'm not sure that full on culinary criticism is the right way to tell the story. After all, Lawry's doesn't have a smoker in the back. But Everett makes a pretty mean fried catfish.

Since Lawry's is a bar, it's kind of an ad hoc solution -- they put a cover over the pool table and set out a few chafing dishes with catfish, ribs, fried chicken, red beans and rice, and candied sweet potatoes, and a pan of corn bread. By the time we arrived, near seven, the first round of food had been pretty well cleared out, but Everett was in back preparing more.

I didn't really spend a lot of time chatting people up or stuff, but Everett did come over and say "which one of you fellows is with that internet group?" and shake our hands (and give us his business card).

They're going to keep doing this, last Thursday of every month (and I think he has another place where he does it sometimes.) Lawry's is a nice mellow bar much different from most of the places a few blocks closer to the heart of the nightlife stuff around there.

germuska wrote:I didn't really spend a lot of time chatting people up or stuff, but Everett did come over and say "which one of you fellows is with that internet group?" and shake our hands (and give us his business card).

What address did he list on his busines card?

justjoan wrote:secret LTH hand signal ... (make an 'L' with your hand and tap 3 times on your stomach--

Can't that also be construed as
"This is a stick-up!"

I really hate that I missed this event. Everett is a regular in the Lincoln Park/Lakeview neighborhoods selling his Streetwise papers mostly outside of Walgreens at Halsted and Diversey. He loves to talk cooking and he's a very interesting guy.

A few years back, I partook of his buffet a few times which was really good, IMO.

Everett is trying to help himself by making something of value available to the neighbors. That, in and of itself, speaks volumes about him as a man.

YourPalWill wrote:I really hate that I missed this event.

As mentioned above, you didn't really miss it; Everett will return to Lawry's next month, and has an ongoing schedule. Catch him at the next one...