Serving up second chances
California prisons are notoriously overcrowded, to the point where an increasing number of “lifers” are being released, along with many less dangerous felons. The inmate population at San Quentin, located just 15 minutes from San Francisco in Marin County, is at 130 percent of capacity. It also holds more than 700 men on death row, the most of any state in the country. However, whether there will be more executions in California remains unclear.
Naturally, parolees released from San Quentin often stop in San Francisco; some disappear among the homeless; others look for work, especially at the Delancey Foundation, founded by Mimi Silbert, one of the city’s iconic characters for the last 40 years. She’s best known for starting a first-rate restaurant on the Embarcadero where waiters include many ex-convicts and former drug addicts. Ms. Silbert has started several other enterprises in the city as well, including a furniture business, a moving company, and a bookstore. And she does it all without government funding or a professional staff.
Info
Address 1429 Mendell Street, San Francisco, CA, 94124, www.oldskoolcafe.org, +1 415.822.8531 | Public Transport Bus: 54 (3rd St & Palou Ave stop); Light rail: T-Third (3rd St & Oakdale Ave stop) | Hours Daily 5:30–9:30pm| Tip The Bay View Opera House—the oldest opera house in San Francisco—is around the corner at 4705 3rd Street.
Following in the footsteps of Silbert and the Delancey Foundation, there’s the Old Skool Café, a youth-run 1940s-style supper club serving up Southern food in the Bay View District. It was started by Teresa Goines, a former juvenile corrections officer who believes the best way to keep kids out of prison is to get them a job where they can accomplish something. Old Skool provides training and employment to 21 at-risk kids between the ages of 16 and 22. The cafe sports swanky red leather booths and elegant chandeliers.
Entertainment is provided by a rotating group of young jazz musicians, many from SFJAZZ. The waiters, who sport crisp red shirts, black bow ties, suspenders, and fedoras, openly share their life stories with diners.
The cafe program’s motto is, quite aptly, “Come hungry. Leave inspired.”
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