Cafe 54 on East Pennington

ARIZONA GOURMET LIVING : FALL 2009 - Head downtown to Café 54 and discover not only the venue’s fine food, but its program for adults recovering from mental illnesses.

Located in the heart of downtown Tucson, Ariz., Café 54 serves the community in more ways than one. In addition to serving up fresh and innovative fare, the cafe also functions as an on-the-job culinary training experience for adults recovering from serious mental illness.

“We are a cafe with a cause,” says Mindy Bernstein, executive director of Café 54.

The primary goals of the cafe, in addition to pleasing customers' palates with its “nouveau Southwestern” dishes, are to help reduce the stigma associated with mental illness and to provide employees with real-life work skills that will help them succeed in the workforce.

“The cafe is a venue not just for good food, but for people to rebuild their lives—the most important mission here is helping people in their recovery,” Bernstein says.

Some trainees may be working for the first time, while others are looking for re-entry to the job market.

“The stigma associated with mental illness can lead to a person feeling broken, with a lack of self-confidence,” says Debbie Tingley, program manager at Café 54. “We see them walk in here with their head down, but it’s not long until they are taking on tasks and standing tall.”

The tasks that trainees take on are varied, but all are real restaurant jobs, says Bernstein. They work as servers, bussers, cashiers, food runners, dishwashers, and prep chefs and they all “take pride in what they do. The service is different here than at any other restaurant because the workers are extremely enthusiastic about what they are doing,” Bernstein says.

That level of enthusiasm is also apparent in the quality of food that Executive Chef Michael McCord serves at Café 54.

The menu is ever-changing, depending on what is fresh that day. One thing that remains a constant is the complimentary homemade rosemary rolls, a customer favorite.

“People come in just for the rolls,” Bernstein says. Each table is set with bottles of extra-virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar to complement the almost-famous rolls.

Other favorites include the goat cheese tart, the Greek beef salad, and the lobster roll.

The menu always includes a variety of salads, sandwiches, and soups, ranging from a spicy black bean burger to a classic Caesar salad. The desserts are ever-changing as well; two of the current favorites are the flourless chocolate cake and the ginger crème caramel.

Everything served at Café 54 is fresh. Nothing comes out of a can, says Bernstein, and those fresh flavors are reflected in the food.

“We also try to buy organic and locally whenever possible,” Bernstein says. “We use local tomatoes, cucumbers, and mixed greens in all our salads.”

The restaurant's aesthetics were designed to provide a calming, comforting atmosphere, while fitting in with the downtown arts district that it calls home. An exposed brick wall is adorned with artwork produced by members of Tucson's mental health community as well as Café 54 trainees.

The atmosphere is casual yet refined— order an item from the blackboard menu at the counter, take a seat at any one of the bistro tables, and wait for a friendly server to bring your food. Customers dining on a lunch break can rest assured that the service will be speedy, while those with a little more time to spare are welcome to relax and people-watch through the picture windows that look out onto Pennington Street.

In addition to the downtown location, Café 54 operates a second location at the Tucson Botanical Gardens from October through April. Café 54 also offers a catering service, and because of its status as a nonprofit, all catering is tax-free. The downtown location is open Monday through Friday from 11 A.M. to 2 P.M. Come October, the Tucson Botanical Gardens location will be open seven days a week,from 10 A.M. to 2 P.M.