A momentum builder
New Downtown restaurant to help at-risk teens
An award- winning Dallas restaurant and culinary training center that combines meals with mission will open a location in Downtown Pittsburgh as part of a national expansion plan.
Cafe Momentum, which hires teenagers who have been in juvenile detention facilities as paid interns to handle all aspects of the restaurant business, has signed an agreement to take two vacant retail spaces in JLL Center on Forbes Avenue.
The Pittsburgh restaurant is one of two Cafe Momentum planned to open this year — the other is in Nashville — as part of an expansion that will take it to 50 cities before 2050.
Chad Houser, CEO and founder of Cafe Momentum and parent company Momentum Advisory Collective, said Pittsburgh was selected in part because there was a need for the type of work the program does with teens and an interest within the community to support it.
Another factor, according to a recent statement announcing the expansion, was Pittsburgh’s reputation as a “foodie” city.
In the Steel City, Cafe Momentum is receiving $650,000 in combined support from the Richard King Mellon Foundation and the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership.
The nonprofit restaurant estimates it will be able to help up to 150 youngsters in Pittsburgh each year after it opens.
Cafe Momentum will employ a program in Pittsburgh similar to what it has been doing in Dallas, although it will be tailored to account for local needs.
In Texas, the restaurant provides paid 12-month internships to teenagers ages 15 to 19 being released from juvenile detention facilities.
It starts with a two-week orientation during which the youngsters are connected with case managers to address urgent needs, to establish stability in their lives, and to set personal goals.
During their yearlong stay, the interns learn all aspects of restaurant work, while receiving
any help they need in areas like financial literacy training, parenting classes, educational assistance and career exploration, the website states.
Once the internship has been completed, graduates are placed in a job with one of the nonprofit’s community partners.
While the teens are schooled in restaurant work, the overall goal is to give them the tools they need to succeed in any career, Mr. Houser said.
In Dallas, one young woman leveraged her restaurant experience to go through nursing school, he noted. Another young man is planning a career with NASA.
To prepare for the opening in Pittsburgh, the restaurant will work to build out about 8,000 square feet of space on Forbes Avenue formerly occupied by Wolfies Pub and Pizzuvio, hire and train local talent, secure additional funding, begin hosting pop-up events and establish local partnerships.
Part of the space will be for the restaurant and the rest will house a community service center that will help interns with trauma care, legal advocacy, schooling and other needs.
The space, which is vacant, is part of the JLL Center mixed-use building developed by Millcraft Investments.
“We are thrilled to welcome Cafe Momentum to Pittsburgh. This concept, in conjunction with further investments by our neighbors at PNC, will continue to improve the Wood and Forbes corridor and the whole of Downtown as well,” said Lucas Piatt, Millcraft president and chief operating officer.
“Bringing a top notch, nationally known restaurant that gives back to the community is a perfect partner for the long term.”
The Stand Together Foundation, founded by wealthy industrialist Charles Koch with an emphasis on tackling poverty, has invested $1.9 million toward Cafe Momentum’s expansion effort.
“We want to move it away from a system that has disproportionately targeted and incarcerated youth of color and move it towards one that focuses on young peoples’ potential and understands the systemic factors that have placed them in their current life circumstances.” Mr. Houser said in recently announcing Cafe Momentum’s expansion plans.
“In so doing, we create healing — not just for the individuals themselves — but also for their communities and future generations.”
Mr. Houser founded Cafe Momentum six years ago after leaving his career as a chef and restaurateur. Since then, the restaurant has served more than 1,000 youngsters and, on average, has doubled teens’ household income.
In an interview Wednesday, Mr. Houser said 54% of the teens who started internships in Dallas arrived as high school dropouts while the other 46% were “completely disengaged” from school.
Now, 100% are either in a high school program or have graduated and 40% are enrolled in college.
The recidivism rate, at 15.2%, is lower than national and state averages. In the past year, there has been zero recidivism, Mr. Houser said.
As for the dining itself, Mr. Houser said Cafe Momentum is focused “on being one of the top restaurants in Pittsburgh.”
The goal, he stressed, is excellence because that sets the standard and the expectations for those who will work there.
On the culinary side, Cafe Momentum will be a farm- to- table, locally sourced restaurant with a “chef- driven seasonal menu.”
While the Pittsburgh and Dallas menus will vary, the restaurant’s top seller, smoked fried chicken, will be available — for good reason.
“The first question I got [in Pittsburgh] was, ‘So when am I going to get to eat that fried chicken,’ ” he related. “I think we’ll incorporate fried chicken into the menu.”