“Good food shouldn't be just for the rich”. This noble intention is even more effective if it is pronounced by a person who is rich, but who has not forgotten the latter for this reason: rock star Jon Bon Jovi, an unforgettable protagonist from the 80s to today with globally successful hits such as Livin on a prayer, Always and It's my life (just to name a few), has inaugurated his third non-profit community restaurant through his Soul Foundation, this time in Newark, New Jersey.
A bit along the lines of what has been done, for example, by the starred chef Gianfranco Vissani who opened in Rome a place of "democratic cuisine", here too the goal is to support those in serious economic difficulty. Compared to other similar experiences, including that of Vissani, Bon Jovi goes even further: in the club, which is called Soul Kitchen, meals are not only sold at affordable prices, they are directly free. “Everyone is welcome to our table, each dish is prepared with local ingredients”, reads behind the counter, and in fact the right-hand column, usually dedicated to prices, is completely missing from the menu.
Those who can afford it, pay 12 dollars at the end of the meal (all inclusive), the others can get involved in the project themselves if they want and decide to repay their debt by helping out in the kitchen, dining room or garden, or nothing. Even the choice of location was not accidental: Soul Kitchen is located near Rutgers University in Newark, a university where 60% of the students have economic problems. For them, and for all the others who can't afford it, the third restaurant opened by Bon Jovi is ready to serve a hot dish, and a quality one at that.
In fact, the imperative, expressly demanded by the rocker, is not to serve fast food but only fresh and zero kilometer stuff, as coming from the local markets or from the garden at the back of the restaurantAnd. And so there's no shortage of hamburgers, but not even roasted chicken with potatoes, pumpkin soup, avocado salad or spinach salad with pistachios and feta cheese, or even roasted salmon or why not rice noodles with vegetables. The menu is updated every ten days.
In the other venues opened by his foundation (which fully finances the initiative), Bon Jovi has already "served" meals to nearly 106.000 people to date: almost half of whom returned the solidarity by making themselves available, the other half paid the 12 dollars or made a donation with what they had. The other two Soul Kitchens are located in Red Bank and Toms River, one of the areas hardest hit by Hurricane Sandy in 2012.
