Best New Restaurants 2023
Café Momentum came to Pittsburgh in March with a laudable mission. The restaurant’s front- and back-of-house staff consists of justice-involved and at-risk youths working a paid 12-month internship developed to guide them through the full spectrum of hospitality industry skills. They are offered classes and mentorship, and they’re paired with case managers to assist them with […]
Best Chefs in Pittsburgh: Peter Henry’s Impactful Culinary History Continues at Cafe Momentum
One of the first things that Chef Peter Henry said to me while showing me Cafe Momentum’s indoor edible flower garden, a baseball cap reading “create change” perched upon his head, was “I don’t like to waste.”
‘Not just a job’: Pittsburgh-area teens gain a sense of calm and confidence at Café Momentum
One of newest fine-dining establishments in Downtown Pittsburgh, Café Momentum is more than a restaurant: Most of the 25 teenagers it employs have been involved in the juvenile justice system. Café Momentum provides them with yearlong, paid internships in an effort to set them on a new path and stop the cycle of incarceration. For […]
A Restaurant Unlike Any Other: A Unique Opportunity for Youth
By Gene Walker When you think about taking your family or friends or staff out to eat, my guess is you aren’t thinking about how to solve one of our communities’ biggest social issues. By the end of this year, that will change, when Café Momentum Pittsburgh opens on Forbes Avenue downtown. It’s not news […]
Getting started: Cafe Momentum Pittsburgh aims to give youth more than a job
Gene Walker knows the road to success has many stops and starts. Consider his path to become executive director of Cafe Momentum Pittsburgh, the soon-to-open nonprofit restaurant and professional training facility in Downtown that gives juvenile offenders a second chance. The East Liberty native graduated from Peabody High School and studied accounting at Bloomsburg University. For […]
Changing Lives Through Culinary Skills
Richard King Mellon Foundation 2021 Annual Report Café Momentum comes to Pittsburgh to help young people move from the criminal-justice system to self-sufficiency. TRISTYN WILLIAMS was 15, pregnant and living in a juvenile rehabilitation center in Texas. The world was closing in on her, and there seemed to be no way forward. She was also […]
Chad Houser gives formerly incarcerated youths a path to stability
The Café Momentum model is spreading across the country from Dallas, offering job training and support to 15-19-year-olds Three years ago, Cameron Carver was 15 and coming out of the juvenile justice program in Nashville, Tenn., after being incarcerated. He needed to help provide for his family, he said. “But I didn’t know how to […]
Fine dining restaurant geared to help teens set to open in Pittsburgh
Source. Cafe Momentum, a fine dining restaurant designed to help teens who have been part of the criminal justice system, is scheduled to open in downtown Pittsburgh in August. The restaurant was created in Dallas seven years ago by Chad Houser.”Over the last seven years we worked with over 1,000 youth,” Houser said. Cafe Momentum […]
Providing confidence, motivation and more
Offensive lineman Zach Banner and former defensive back and current judge Honorable Dwayne Woodruff recently took part in the Café Momentum Virtual Dinner: Growing Opportunity. The Steelers partnered with the Players Coalition and Café Momentum for the dinner conversation, and yes everyone on the panel did enjoy dinner from home as they shared in depth […]
Can Restaurants Revolutionize the Juvenile Justice System? This Dallas Chef Turned Nonprofit Leader Is Betting On It
BY SANDRA ENGELLAND • MAR 11, 2021 “My priority in social innovation must center around creating ideas for lasting change,” Chad Houser says. It’s been a busy year for the English lit major turned chef, restaurateur, and nonprofit founder—a winding path that prepared him for where he is today. There are no shortcuts, he says. Houser, the creator […]