The Friar’s Table from Chef Brandon Chrostowski opens at Playhouse Square [Video]

CLEVELAND — The newest restaurant at Playhouse Square in downtown Cleveland celebrates monastic cuisine while aiming to serve the community, provide workforce training, and bring people together. 

Following his EDWINS concept, in which Chef Brandon Chrostowski leads formerly incarcerated individuals through training to ready them for jobs in the dining and hospitality space, The Friars’ Table employs refugees and those from nearby shelters. 

“The idea is you go full time employment. You still are going through a curriculum of being taught the fundamentals of cooking and hospitality. So we have that large checklist in our curriculum,” Chrostowski said. “The biggest one is the stabilization of someone’s life and making sure,’ hey, you’ve got steady employment, we can build on that and get into housing if you need it.’ And then from …