Suppose you could take your family out for dinner on Christmas Day at one of those upscale LoDo restaurants.
It’s a full-course festive feast, served on tables with white linens by an attentive wait staff.
And, when it comes time for the bill to arrive, it doesn’t. There is no charge for the entire experience.
It’s not a dream. On Dec. 25, the 20th annual Miracle on 19th Street will be held at the Chop House near Coors Field. The diners will be some 3,000 Denver area residents who might otherwise be facing a bleak holiday.
Sure, there are many other Yule dinners provided by corporate and charitable organizations. Most are served up at shelters for the homeless or delivered as food packages for the needy. All of these efforts are gracious and generous.
But the experience provided by the Chop House is like no other.
“The guests get a high-end dining experience and a bit of normalcy where normalcy and feeling human again can really make a difference into the coming year,” says Colin McDowell, manager of the restaurant.
“I now have dozens of volunteers for the event who used to be guests. And I even have several full-time employees here that I met and hired based on conversations we had when they were previous guests.”
The Santa Claus in this case is the CraftWorks Foundation, the charitable arm of the company that owns more than 150 restaurants across the nation. It provides “Miracle Meals” in several cities, including Colorado Springs and Longmont. None matches the format at the Chop House.
Adam Bradbury, senior manager for the foundation, headquartered in Broomfield, said its concept of providing holidays meals for the needy started at the Denver restaurant and spread from there.
He said the original concept was developed because the Chop House was once an abandoned railroad building that had become home to numerous transients. They were ousted when CraftWorks remodeled the property for the restaurant. But it was apparent that if the company wanted a charitable cause, it didn’t have to look far.
There were about 250 diners at the first Miracle on 19th Street. As many as 3,000 are expected this Christmas. About 700 of them will be children, who will receive toys from Saint Nick. The foundation works with local shelters and welfare agencies to supply admission tickets. This year’s affair will run from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
It’s hard to say who gets the most satisfaction — the diners or the volunteers and restaurant staff. Barbara Granica of north Denver, a volunteer for six years, said that after a six-hour stint at the Chop House, “I come home feeling fulfilled.” As one of the hostesses, she has “time to circulate among the diners and converse with them. I like to collect hugs, and I’ve gotten hundreds of them.” And even a couple of marriage proposals, she admits.
McDowell is uplifted by “seeing a lot of moms and dads leaving with their families with their chins raised much higher than when they arrived.
“It’s bittersweet, but tremendous to observe.”
Dick Hilker (dhilker529@ ) of Arvada is a retired Denver suburban area newspaper editor and columnist.
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