Westport ‘Sunday Service’ will provide 200 free meals to displaced restaurant workers

The owner of some of Westport’s most popular restaurants will hold a special kind of “Sunday Service” this weekend.

Char Bar managers and chefs will be preparing 200 hot boxed meals for displaced restaurant industry employees. It will have 170 lunches with pulled pork, smoked ham, hand-cranked sausage, potato salad, pit beans and toast. It also will have 30 vegetarian box lunches with smoked jackfruit, broccoli slaw and potato salad.

Restaurant employees will start handing the meals out at 2 p.m. Sunday curbside at the restaurant, 4050 Pennsylvania Ave. To get the free meal, people must show a recent pay stub or their Employee Liquor Permit card.

BeerKC Restaurant Inc. had to lay off 170 ”hard-working hourly employees” on Tuesday and temporarily close its Beer Kitchen and Mickey’s Hideaway. It consolidated the rest of its workers at Char Bar and is serving popular items from all three menus.

“We know that many of our local service industry employees live paycheck to paycheck and will not be able to sustain themselves if they are out of work for a long time period,” said Mark Kelpe, partner in BeerKC. “It’s just really going to be a struggle for a lot of people. We wanted to give them a hot meal of Kansas City barbecue.”

Friday afternoon, the company cleared out perishables from all three restaurants and sent out word via social media for displaced restaurant workers to come pick up some free produce on its patio.