The element of surprise is always on the menu and the joy of cooking is always on the plate at the tremendously altruistic Refettorio Harlem, saving the planet one meal at a time.
The original art-filled basement of the Emanuel AME Church uptown transforms into a fine dining site at 5:00 every Wednesday and Friday evening at Refettorio Harlem, which is not a traditional food pantry or soup kitchen, but a full service restaurant offering a free gourmet meal with wait service for every table. Taking its name from the Italian for ‘cafeteria’ or ‘dining hall,’ it started in August 2023 as an outgrowth of Unconditional Freedom. Unconditional Freedom began in 2019 in California and travels as a labor of love to restore dignity to the most marginalized in society through food, prison ministry, and more.
Located at 37 W. 119th Street, Refettorio doesn’t share its menu or offerings in advance. Why? Each meal depends on food donations from large-scale bulk suppliers who would otherwise dump the surplus that restaurants and grocers don’t buy in time. Matt Sherman, Refetorrio’s General Manager, helps “rescue” this food for the community, and says “We are on a ‘Zero Waste’ mission to serve or give away food that huge suppliers like Baldor’s would have to throw in the landfill after they can’t legally sell it anymore.”
Sherman is also the General Manager of the Free Food Harlem program, a project under the Unconditional Freedom umbrella, and in collaboration with the Refettorio Harlem space, a gift under the Food for Soul nonprofit started by hef Massimo Bottura. Free Food Harlem also organizes a grab-bag style “pantry” every Tuesday from noon to 2 p.m., “Refettorio Fresh.”
“We don’t bag up donations to hand out blindly,” Sherman says. “That model assumes people who need free food deserve to eat what they might not even like, so they may throw it away anyway.”
Instead of waiting for a handout of miscellany, people bring tote bags to take out only what they want and need. Sherman’s team recoups what remains for the Friday and Wednesday dinners. This is how my guest and I dined when we had an exquisite turkey soup appetizer, undoubtedly carved from Thanksgiving’s unsold, leftover birds on Friday, December 6th. There was a sumptuous main dish of catfish, Brussels sprouts, and jalapeno cornbread – all before an eggnog cake dessert. Dinner was entirely free to those who couldn’t afford groceries or for those who simply want to socialize over a fabulous meal. The company at te formally-set tables was rich: it included seniors, non-English speakers, single mothers with children, and construction workers in their off-season. It was my perfect segue-way into the official holiday season.
Michael Lesser, or “Chef Michael,” serves as Director of Culinary Operations. He runs the vibrant kitchen that I was lucky enough to get a peek into. Classically trained as a chef, and with a background in engineering and handiwork, Lesser also teaches cooking to transitional individuals and culinary students. Also, dozens of other regular volunteers or part-time staffers like Joseph Smith, make the weekly pantry and biweekly sit-down meals happen. Many are also recipients of free food via the programs.
The first-come, first-serve seating is communal. Volunteers will seat people until the 7:00 p.m. cutoff and maybe even a little after, depending on how much food is left to continue making meals.
“We only do this so zero food goes to waste,” Sherman explains. “Even if staff cooks what is left over for ourselves and our families, nothing we receive that week goes in the garbage.”
This idealistic mission to save food headed to the trash is, ironically, not entirely free. Its budget includes operating costs as well as a small stipend-level salary for a few part-time staff. A years-long church renovation project brought a robust garden by Kelco and Green City Irrigation and even luxurious Gucci fabrics into the basement’s quaint parlor next to the dining hall.
On Monday, December 9th, Refettorio Harlem outfitted the church basement with grander decorations and planned a menu well in advance. Its annual holiday soiree and benefit took place with guest cooks, including Chef Aliyyah Baylor of Make My Cake and Chef Russell Johnson of Reverence NYC restaurant. Celeste and Khoury Beatty of Harlem Brewing Company whipped up their famous “Beer Mac and Cheese” featured in their blockbuster book Harlem Brew Soul.
Billed as “An evening of Poetic Gastronomy,” this ticketed celebration for sponsors and donors paid homage to Langston Hughes’s poetry. I first encountered Sherman in the AME Emanuel basement while I walked the Harlem Arts Stroll, a monthly self-guided tour of area locations displaying original art in partnership with Calabar Gallery. So in the spirit of supporting artists along with the New York community at large, each guest received a print of original work by Reginald Rousseau, a painter featured on the stroll. Matt Whitfield and Friends provided the musical entertainment.
On the menu? Truffled pizza as a welcome appetizer, escovitch fish with a side of plantains or braised oxtails and rice grits as a main course, and pannetone & cream and triple chocolate cake, among much more. All were there to celebrate Refettorio’s salvation of 100,000 pounds of food and over 68,000 CO2 emissions, and its over 100,000 free meals provided to nearly 15,000 people.
Future plans are to expand the community dinners to three nights a week and to launch the Harlem Chef’s Lab Series in February 2025. The series will feature local artists to entertain invited guests over, of course, gourmet dinners crafted from rescued food. Until then, join the cavalry of people dedicated to the cause by signing up for the Refettorio mailing list or making a much-needed tax-free gift at Refettorioharlem.org. And you can always head uptown to eat, make new friends, and experience this wonderful Harlem treasure.
