Pay-What-You-Can-Afford Fort Worth Restaurant Adds Breakfast

All walks of life come together in the restaurant

Something good is now cooking at a restaurant in Fort Worth.

Taste Community Restaurant sits on South Main Street in the Near Southside and opened two years ago for lunch.

Weekend brunch followed. Now, Tuesday is the first day for a new breakfast menu. Eggs, pancakes, breakfast tacos, huevos verdes, oatmeal and omelets are served hot, but the menu is intentionally limited.

"You come in, and it's breakfast items that can get you in and out really quickly," said Jeff Williams, who opened the restaurant in 2017. "We're not gonna be an IHOP or Denny's with 15 types of pancakes."

But, what diners at the restaurant do get is a heaping dose of dignity.

Taste Community Restaurant is a nonprofit where anybody can get a good meal regardless of the ability to pay.

"What we do is fight hunger," said Williams, the executive director of the nonprofit Taste Project which opened the restaurant. With a pay-what-you-can-afford menu, Williams "hopes to show people what another solution to fighting hunger could be; a part I think shows a greater level of dignity for people who get their service than other traditional methods we have today. In doing what we're doing in that way, we can show god's love to people in a tangible way."

Taste Community Restaurant is the first project of the Taste Project organization designed to help feed, educate, and serve Tarrant County’s food insecure population, a total of 16.6% of Tarrant County’s overall community.

All walks of life come together in the restaurant, with only the volunteer servers knowing who can afford to pay for a meal.

"We have people who are homeless, and we have CEOs of organizations," Williams said. "When it's time to pay your bill, whatever you think you can afford and is within your budget, that's what we ask."

Williams believes his approach "shows a greater level of dignity for people who get their service than other traditional methods we have today."

Taste Community Restaurant
1200 South Main Street
Fort Worth, Texas 76104

Open: Tuesday - Sunday (Closed on Monday)
Breakfast and Lunch: Tuesday - Fridays: 7 a.m. - 2 p.m.
Brunch: Saturday and Sunday: 10 a.m. - 2 p.m.

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