Chris Bliznikas knows he's fortunate to be having a Christmas dinner this year. "I have the luxury of being at home and being able to decide where I want to go for a family Christmas meal," said the operating partner for 5 Forks Restaurant. "There are so many people out there that don't' have the luxury of knowing where that meal is going to come from."
In order to give back to the community, the restaurant staff came up with the idea for an inaugural 5 Forks Freeze, complete with an ice bar designed and built by their prep cook Bill Lam. "We kind of tasked him and said 'can you do this?' He never says no to us," said Bliznikas. "He's been out here for the last few days in the minus 30 temperatures trying to put stuff together for us."
About 250 tickets have been sold and all the proceeds from the ticket sales will go to the Dew Drop Inn.
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Bliznikas said as a person in the restaurant business, giving back to the the soup kitchen was a long time coming. "When you know they are going to provide for all these people whether from children to seniors, quite frankly, it's the least we can do," he said.
The Dew Drop Inn served 59,000 people last year and this year they estimate that number will rise to 64,000.
President Paul Deighton said it's because of the support of the community, through events like the 5 Forks Freeze and other individual efforts, that keep the Dew Drop Inn going. "We just provide the place. It's the entire community that enables us to do what we do," he said.
There are tickets still available and Bliznikas said as long as they have the capacity in the restaurant, they won't turn anyone away.
The 5 Forks Freeze starts at 9:30 p.m. Saturday.
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