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BENEFIT
Breaking bread for food-service workers

BY NINA WILLDORF

Boston’s restaurateurs will put their finely tuned reduction and fusion skills to use today, October 11, to raise money for the families of food-service employees who were lost in the attacks on the World Trade Center. Around 50 restaurants in Boston will donate at least 10 percent of the day’s proceeds to the Windows of Hope Family Relief Fund. The fund, administered by J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and David Berdon & Co. LLP, will distribute money to surviving family members for everything from household bills to college tuition. Seventy-eight workers from Windows on the World, a restaurant in the World Trade Center, are among the missing after last month’s terrorist strike, and that figure doesn’t even include countless staffers, from hot-dog vendors to cafeteria workers, who have not turned up since the attacks.

The October 11 event — in which 1000 restaurants from 46 states, the United Kingdom, Taiwan, Canada, Puerto Rico, and France are participating — was the brainchild of David Emil, the owner of Windows on the World, and Michael Lomonaco, the restaurant’s executive chef. The response has been so overwhelming, notes Nancy Civetta, a spokeswoman for the event, that coordinators " actually had to open up office space and move offices " to accommodate all the requests to chip in.

The list of Boston’s participating restaurants includes such acclaimed eateries as Sandrine’s, Clio, Radius, and the Federalist, along with more casual neighborhood joints like Somerville’s Tu y Yo and the Boston and Cambridge locations of the Good Life. All will be donating at least 10 percent of their proceeds, and many restaurants are giving more than that. " Each restaurant is being pretty creative, " says Civetta. Restaurant Sage is donating all the money from a newly created dessert called Big Apple Strudel. No. 9 Park is hosting a $75 Italian-style dinner this Monday, October 15, and will give all the proceeds to the fund. And Cambridge’s Mediterranean restaurant Aspasia, which is participating in Thursday’s event, is also donating $3 from every prix fixe dinner served this month.

" Boston does want to make a significant contribution, " says Civetta. " We’re neighbors. "

Find participating restaurants and more information at www.windowsofhope.org.

Issue Date: October 11 - 18, 2001