"In the Loop" fans provide alternate names for Anthony Weiner's planned Rockaways restaurant-and-training project

by Ken

"When news broke that former congressman Anthony Weiner’s latest career endeavor would be a New York City restaurant/culinary school," Washington Post "In the Loop" master Al Kamen wrote Friday, "we felt compelled to help somehow. It's the least we could do for all the fodder he’s provided over the years."

But, as I reported at the time ("Doesn't Carlos Danger need a better name than "Rockaway Restoration Kitchen" for his entry into the restaurant world?"), the Loopsters worried about the name so far slotted for this worthy eatery plus training and jobs-creation project planned by the former congressman for the Hurricane Sandy-devastated Rockaways in Queens (part of his old congressional district): Rockaway Restoration Kitchen, explaining:

The key to any successful business (other than a good product) is a catchy name. So we turned to our brilliant Loop Fans to come up with the perfect one.

It seems that a lot of those "Loop Fans" couldn't, or at least didn't, avoid "the obvious phallic joke." However, as requested, "they kept it clean, mostly." From those Loop Fans' offerings, the "Loop" team aided by a Post-colleague judging panel of Karen Tumulty, Katie Zezima and David A. Fahrenthold came up with a field of five.

The winners (in no particular order) are:

● Outfront Steakhouse. Submitted by Department of Transportation program manager Kevin Dopart of the District.

● SELFIE’s. Submitted by environmental consultant James Cohn of New York.

● Chez Penisse. Submitted by University of Florida physics professor Peter Hirschfeld of Gainesville, Fla. (A second submission came in with this name, but we awarded it to the first entry.)

● Politics and Pose. Submitted by marketing consultant Holly Hemphill of Falls Church.

● The Weiner’s Circle. Submitted by retiree Hal Handerson of Arlington.

(I guess we'll have to use our imaginations for name suggestions that don't "keep it clean.")

An "Honorable Mention" was also awarded:

We often get entries from overseas, and although he did not win, we want to recognize our very first entry this go-round from Ray Comeau, a retiree in Chongqing, China. He proposed Mr. Winkie’s Kishka, and explained: “The first part of the name sounds close to well-known American chains Wendy’s (the hamburger chain) and Wimpy (the hamburger-eating Popeye character). The second part of the name honors Weiner’s ethnicity (Jewish) and love of a good sausage.”

TO BE SERIOUS FOR A MOMENT

There is some serious thinking behind the project, and I don't want to give that short shrift. Here's the mission statement from the Rockaway Restoration Kitchen website:

Rockaway, Queens, is a part of New York City that is home to chronically unemployed and was devastated by Hurricane Sandy in 2012. The mission of Rockaway Restoration Kitchen is to help meet some of the needs that have arisen from these and other challenges faced by the community. Our goal is to provide a comfortable neighborhood restaurant with healthy, locally sourced food that satisfies the hunger of Rockaway residents, attracts visitors and serves up dignity and self-sufficiency by serving as a hands on training ground to provide skills, real experience and job placement in the culinary industry.

Provided below are the primary challenges and needs that we hope to overcome and fulfill.

Challenge One: The restaurant, catering, hotel and food production industries face a shortage of experienced kitchen help.
The Need: A reliable pipeline of trained and motivated workers with a resume that includes restaurant work.

Challenge Two: Thousands of the chronically unemployed lack the training and necessary on-the-job experience to gain and hold jobs in the culinary field.
The Need: A training program that offers classroom skills training and work in a real working restaurant kitchen.

Challenge Three: Rockaway New York, a community devastated by Hurricane Sandy, has a high unemployment rate and too few quality healthy restaurant options.
The Need: An affordable, comfortable, healthy alternative to the few fast food and pizza joints.

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