Living in NYC at the start of the pandemic was scary. I never thought I’d see the “City That Never Sleeps” start to shut down.

Pacing my apartment after being sent home from work, wondering what would happen next, I heard this story from NPR about Italians lowering baskets of food to support their neighbors.

💡 Light Bulb Moment 💡 - I realized I could do the same from my balcony in Astoria.

I started decorating my balcony with funny cardboard signs, and began lowering bread, then BBQ, to anyone who wanted. I eventually went from my balcony to the middle of 31st Ave Open Street and then to some of the biggest and most well-known venues in and around Astoria using BBQ to enrich and support my neighborhood during the pandemic.

The name Tikkun BBQ comes from the Jewish concept “Tikkun Olam”, which can be translated as “repair of the world”.

I doubt we’ll be able to make enough BBQ to repair the world, but as Anthony Bourdain might have said, “…it’s a start.”