E AT + D R I N K / E AT H E R E N O W
THE COMFORT CAFE
5616 Bandera Road 512-575-0348 serenitystar.org/ san-antonio Breakfast & lunch Friday-Sunday
Comfort with a Purpose The donation-based Comfort Café serves up homecooked classics in support of addiction recovery BY EMILY GUAJARDO
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elicious, old-fashioned diner food is served with a smile (behind a mask, for now) at the Comfort Café, but the 1950s-themed eatery with Johnny Cash and Frank Sinatra vinyls pinned up on the wall is about more than just good food—it’s in the business of personal transformation. One of seven divisions of SerenityStar Recovery, a nonprofit peer-to-peer residential program for recovering addicts and alcoholics who are working a 12-step program, Comfort Café began first in Smithville and last May expanded to San Antonio under the direction of founders Teri and Linda Lopez. The two met in 2005 at an outpatient recovery program in New York while on their own journey toward sobriety and relocated to Texas to start anew. “When I moved from New York, I saw that all these restaurants had was Tex-Mex food with the exception of that one Dairy Queen,” Teri says, of their original outpost in Smithville. “That’s why when we started the Comfort Café, we wanted to bring foods that we loved back in New York—things like
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PHOTOS BY JOMANDO CRUZ
10/29/20 3:55 PM
