‘Dopest’ Way To Do Good

Taste Community Restaurant, 1200 S Main St, FW. 817-759-9045. 9am-2pm Sun, Tue-Sat.

Influencer and fighter — and famous food lover — Keith Lee dropped into Tarrant County earlier this year to do what he does best. The MMA featherweight has slammed and hammerfisted his 15 minutes of fame into much longer by regularly shining a light on family-owned, small restaurants in TikTok segments. I ignored this whole happening partly because Lee took to his platform to ask for help picking places, which I think is lazy. Is his Wi-Fi down? There are at least three foodie groups already amateur-reviewing everything in the 817, and for the love of all that is holy and deep-fried, this publication has been producing a food-forward Best Of issue every year since the late 1990s. However, my cynical heart grew three sizes the day Lee pronounced Taste Community Restaurant “the dopest” eatery of any kind he’s “ever seen.” In a massive generosity smackdown, the fightin’ foodie also made a $4,000 donation to the organization.

Taste is a nonprofit combating hunger with grace and dignity. Their philosophy is based off Psalm 34. Anyone can eat there, and diners pay what they can afford. If $100 per sitting doesn’t put you in the red, you are supporting other diners’ meals. It’s the definition of paying it forward.

Chef Jeff Williams and wife Julie Williams founded Taste in 2017. Jeff ran an IT business, which Julie said “comes in handy” when we chatted recently. Jeff was also a chef at Central Market Cooking School, and Julie’s sales and marketing experience has definitely also been useful.

This year, Taste will expand into a second location, this one in Arlington, near UTA, Arlington High School, and the Levitt Pavilion. The location is also about a mile from THR Arlington Memorial Hospital. A grant from the Amon G. Carter Foundation is helping, and the Williamses have raised around $2.6 million of the nearly $3 million needed to rehab the old city building into a 100-seat restaurant with a production kitchen and a classroom.

In 2017, a Weekly food reviewer was captivated by the creativity in Taste’s kitchen. Not only can people in need enjoy a really lovely three-course meal of their choosing, but this concept is a model for extending the resources of full-time kitchens and shelters. Over the last seven years, Taste has expanded services to include culinary job training and apprenticeships, which means that people with limited experience can become experts and find jobs that pay a decent wage.

The problem of food insecurity is broad and deep. Thirteen percent of Tarrant County residents don’t have enough money left at the end of the month for their food budgets, and up to a third of people who don’t have enough to eat make too much money to qualify for the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) –– among them are some of our school employees and active-duty military personnel. The Williamses estimate that 200,000-plus people have dined at Taste since its inception.

The restaurant launched a series of celebrity chef fundraising dinners in 2019, which unfortunately dwindled during 2020, but the event geared back up in June. So far, chefs Jon Bonnell (Bonnell’s, Waters, Jon’s Grille, Buffalo Bros.) and Juan Rodriguez (Magdalena’s, the forthcoming La Coqueta) have made magic and food philanthropy in the Taste kitchen. This week, Kevin Martinez (Tokyo Café, Yatai Food Kart, Heirloom Garden Café) continues his community-building generosity with a BYOB dinner. Unlike regular dining at Taste, tickets (starting at $150 per couple) must be purchased in advance at TasteProject.org/event.

Julie said the celebrity chef dinners provide a level of support during summer, when there’s historically a surge in dining. Since 2020, more school districts are providing year-round meal service for children, but as Julie said, “As a parent, your kids can eat, but you don’t eat with them.”

Taste sees an uptick of families dining together in the summer. The chef dinners help support nutritious meals that may actually increase diners’ healthy food choices –– veggies, whole fruits, fewer refined grains, and less processed or fried food. Taste’s current seasonal lunch menu includes carne asada, ahi tuna, a chicken fattoush appetizer, elote salad, and a peach tart for dessert.

And Julie called the Arlington location on North Cooper Street “perfect” for the organization’s mission.

“We’re walking distance to UTA and to the hospital,” she said. “We’d originally looked at some locations on campus, but we wanted to serve the broader community, and this would be easier off campus.”

The original Taste is walking distance from the Hospital District on the Near Southside, which is something that Julie says is an important consideration for their client base.

Beloved PBS icon Mr. Rogers famously said that when we see tragedy, “look for the helpers.” It speaks volumes when three busy Fort Worth chefs leave their own establishments to promote another restaurant. Bonnell and Rodriguez are known for their generosity among the food folk in town, and Martinez spearheaded an effort to prep and serve 48,000 meals to displaced food workers during the dismal COVID spring of 2020.

With a “soft spot” for Chef Williams, Rodriguez said that he and his team “are just trying to do something special” for Taste. Chefs from Sanford House and Café Americana in Arlington are set to take their turn in the Taste kitchen over the next two months.

If you want to be a “Taste Bud,” or volunteer, the restaurant is still fundraising for the last parts of their capital campaign. Visit TasteProject.org to give now –– an Arlington donor is currently matching donations for the new location. Because Taste depends on volunteer effort, Julie said recruitment for the Arlington location can start right now in Fort Worth.

“Sign up to train [at TasteProject.org], and the system will walk you through a series of videos,” Julie said. “It’s all online training, and then you shadow another person for a shift.”

Volunteers as young as age 14 can become Taste Buds, and Julie said that families with children as young as age 12 can volunteer together as part of the “dopest” restaurant that Keith Lee has ever seen.

Taste Celebrity Chef Dinner w/Kevin Martinez
6pm-8pm Fri at Taste Community Restaurant, 1200 S Main St, FW. $150 per couple. 817-759-9045. TasteProject.org/event.