Curt’s Cafe serves up hope, life skills — and second chances

Brian Rich/Sun-Times

A job and three free meals a day can spell the way to a young person’s heart.

But young people who’ve served time in jail and those who just need a break say it takes a unique atmosphere, support system and a mentoring program to turn their lives around.

They’ve found it at Curt’s Café, a non-profit with locations in Evanston and Highland Park (with plans to expand into Chicago or other communities when the right opportunity presents itself).

Curt’s Café provides mentoring, job- and life-skills training, field trips to cultural and historic landmarks, and other essential helpers, ranging from GED teachers to mental health counselors to volunteers offering expertise on how to get a Real ID or a free lift to a job interview.

Student-trainees get hands on experience with the chef in the kitchen at Curt’s Cafe in Evanston.

The young adults — ages 15 to 24 — who find a respite at the café, range from those with criminal records to gang bangers and high-school graduates who just need a role model and a sympathetic ear.

Of the more than 350 people who’ve completed the three-month program since Curt’s Café opened in Evanston in 2012, only four have been re-incarcerated. And 82 percent work or have returned to school. The rest are still finding their footing, but they are safe and staying out of trouble.

Among Illinois’ imprisoned of all ages, more than 40 percent of those released each year recidivate within three years of release, and 17 percent reoffend within one year, according to a 2018 report by the Illinois Sentencing Policy Advisory Council.

“They don’t want to be bad kids,” said Susan Trieschmann, Curt’s Café founder and executive director. “Kids are much stronger than we give them credit for … And I don’t think we have the opportunity to provide strong support if they’re locked up in cages.”

Trieschmann has a unique insight. She lost her father, a native of Guatemala, when she was 7, when he drowned in Hialeah, Florida, where she was born. Her mother raised her and her five siblings by waitressing. Trieschmann discovered she was a skilled waitress, too, as well as an astute businesswoman. She and her sister and brother-in-law, Nancy and Curt Sharp, started and then expanded a successful restaurant and catering business, Food for Thought, which Nancy still owns.

General Manager Trudyann Smith (right), helps one of the student-trainees run the front counter at Curt’s Cafe.

After Curt died at age 53 from lung cancer, Trieshmann, now 62, decided to get her college degree at age 48. She said she realized that she could combine her love of making people happy in the food service industry with social justice for the most at-risk and marginalized young people.

The Curt’s Cafe program expanded to Highland Park in 2019. The leaders have their sights set on opening a third café in the Obama Center in Chicago’s Jackson Park neighborhood.

The program operates on a $1.1 million annual budget, with 60 percent of the revenue from fundraising and 40 percent from café sales.

Trudyann Smith first visited the café in Evanston about six years ago when she tagged along with her boyfriend.

“I started volunteering to get work experience,” said Smith, 24, of Rogers Park. “I had just graduated Evanston Township high school — so I started by waitressing, working the register and helping behind the scenes.”

“I liked it,” she said.

The paid staff — there are five at each café — a full-time social worker, a manager, a shift leader, a cook and an assistant cook — made her feel at home. Volunteers helped Smith create a resume, and she earned promotions to customer-service supervisor at area retail stores until she returned to Curt’s Café as the general manager of the Evanston location. She’s starting her third year as the general manager.

Susan Trieschmann is the founder and executive director of Curt’s Cafe.

“It’s just a place where you can relax,” Smith said. “You don’t feel out of place. You feel comfortable.”

DeShawn Carter credits the café program for giving him the confidence to believe in a bright future.

Carter said he came to the café in Evanston to try to get his younger brother into the program, but he knew that he had to step up his own game.

“I was trying to step forward to make a change, and they accepted me,” said the now 29-year-old Carter, who works as a grill chef and a salad chef at two restaurants.

He knew he had been making poor decisions in life, but after steadying himself with Curt Café’s meals and mentors, Carter said he had to look deeper and aim for a career instead of another dead-end job.

He said he hopes to one day open his own business that helps others — perhaps a restaurant, maybe a barber shop. He’s made printed shirts for the café’s fundraising efforts.

“I had jobs before I went to Curt’s, but I never thought, ‘This is what I want to do,’” he said. “But after the training at Curt’s, I said, ‘OK, I didn’t know that I could use a knife like that or understand how to add seasoning to food, or to make a plate look pretty.”

Curt’s Café is located at 2922 Central St. in Evanston.

Rick Marsh, who’s been a mentor, volunteer and leader at Curt’s Café for the past six years and is starting his fourth year as its board president, said he takes heart from Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s and Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton’s criminal justice reform efforts, noting that work, housing and other barriers that felons face are decades-old issues.

And he always has, as he calls it, “a pep in his step” when he sees the young people grow into their own and shed their tough exterior.

“They’re as sensitive and fragile as they can be,” said Marsh, 65, who grew up in New York City, attended college on a basketball scholarship and played in the NBA with the Golden State Warriors. He retired four years ago after a 34-year corporate sales career as head of the global corporate account sales team at DuPont’s Packaging and Graphics Division.

“When I was growing up and playing basketball, I had people who mentored me and helped support my development,” Marsh said. “I know the importance of having people who really care.”

Sandra Guy is a local freelance writer.