***UPDATE BELOW***?
Many of you may already know the story of Fran O’ Brien’s restaurant near the White house that has been serving free dinners to wounded servicement every Friday night for the past 2.5 years:
There are 20 steps from the street to the steak house, which might seem no small matter for young veterans who have lost their legs to war.
But the stairs that lead down to Fran O’Brien’s Stadium Steak House are not just another obstacle to the hundreds of GIs severely wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan who have labored up and down them over the past two years.
Instead, for those whose future plans exploded the moment they were maimed, the steps _ and the landmark restaurant they lead to _ are a welcome-mat back to normal life.
“My first dinner was the first time I felt like I was home,” is the way Sgt. Steve Clark, who lost his arm to Iraq combat, describes the experience.
Virtually every Friday evening since 2003, the upscale restaurant three blocks from the White House has opened its doors to the young vets who are patients at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md.
In a restaurant where a T-bone goes for $30 a pop, each recuperating vet gets a full-course feast, plus whatever libations they choose, for free.
Well now it appears the owners of the property have denied an extension to their lease and will have to shut there doors at the end of the month:
Hello all,
This past Friday night I was privileged to visit Fran O’Brien’s steakhouse in the Capitol Hilton, Washington, DC. Every Friday night, Hal Koster, the restaurant manager and Vietnam Vet, invites our wounded soldiers convalescing at nearby Walter Reed Army Center to a free steak dinner and drinks. It was supposedly a “slow” night for our heroes as many were on a ski trip in Colorado. But I walked into an absolutely packed room of wounded soldiers and their families enjoying a minor but well-deserved recognition for their service to our country.
I’ve also discovered since then that the Hilton Corporation will not be renewing the lease. Apparently, there are too many “liability issues” in accommodating American heroes in wheelchairs. In fact , the lease (and therefore the dinners) will expire in a few short weeks. If America had responded as we would in the past, this would be inconsequential really. Obviously we have not and it is a tragic commentary on today’s PC-ness.
Please read the attached e-mail with more of the details.
Best,
BuzzBuzz Patterson
Lieutenant Colonel, USAF (Retired)
Here is the attached email Buzz is talking about:
I’m Jim McDaniel, webmaster for the 174th Assault Helicopter Company’s web site. I refer you to one of our web pages that I put together back in 2004. It is about Hal Koster, one of our 174th crew chiefs from Vietnam. Hal crewed the UH-1C SHARK gunships that I flew 1967-68. Hal and I flew together. Please see the page about his restaurant and his support of our veterans at http://www.174ahc.org/koster-iraq.htm.
Now, having read the page, Hal has continued to host our veteran amputees every Friday night. I have been to several of the dinners, and it is absolutely WONDERFUL what Hal has been doing at significant effort and personal expense (every dollar he spends on our veterans could be money he puts in his pocket). You really have to be one of these dinners to fully appreciate what this means to these soldiers.
Well I received this message (below) from Jack Cunningham, and I couldn’t believe it. I was last in Hal’s on St. Patrick’s Day, and Hal didn’t mention his difficulties to me then. I just called Hal and he confirmed for me this report is TRUE. Hilton has terminated his lease and the restaurant has been ordered closed on April 31 (just over TWO WEEKS from now). Apparently Hal’s support of our wounded veterans is playing a MAJOR part in Hilton’s decision to shut him down. Part of it is that Hilton has refused to put in wheelchair access to the restaurant and their concern over liability if one of the amputees should be injured in the restaurant.
I can’t believe it! Just how callous can this company be?
It Hilton does this, I will NEVER set foot in a Hilton Hotel again. And I am going to tell them that. If you agree, it is IMPERATIVE you let Hilton know immediately of your feelings. In two weeks (April 31, 2006) it’ll be too late. Below are names, e-mail addresses, and website addresses for Hilton.
Hal has NOT asked for any support on this from me or any of us, but he absolutely needs our support.
Call or write to Hilton NOW. Let them know how you feel.
Thank you, and please feel free to forward this to any people or organizations you believe could help.
Jim McDaniel
174th AHC Webmaster
http://www.174ahc.org
jim.mcd@cox.net
174th AHC Dolphin pilot 1967
174th AHC Shark pilot 1968
116th AHC Hornet pilot 1971
“Nothing Impossible”
We need all the help we can to call and write to the two Hilton officials:
Here are the people to call:
Dan Boyle (212) 838-1558
daniel_a_boyle@hilton.comBrian Kellaher (202) 393-1000
Be polite and civil but EVERYONE needs to pass this on.? The support this restaurant has given to the military these past 3 years need not be in vain.
UPDATE 4-15-06 0730HRS
From Andi’s World comes the following update:
April 14, 2006
Hilton Responds to the Fran O’Brien’s MatterSomeone I know and trust has been talking with representatives of the Capital Hilton over the past couple of days regarding the Fran O’Brien’s eviction. As a result of those conversations, Brian Kelleher, General Manager of the Capital Hilton, called me this afternoon. He and I had a good conversation and he answered all of my questions. In fact, he’s going to answer your questions too. More on that later.
I began by asking Kelleher to confirm that negotiations were over and that there is no way the two parties, Hilton and Fran O’Brien’s, could come to an agreement, and he confirmed this to be true. Fran O’Brien’s will indeed be moving out at the end of this month. Kelleher says that negotiations between the two “didn’t gel”. I hesitate to explore this area because corporate lease negotiations are difficult and none of us are privy to what happened behind the scenes. As painful as it is for us, because of our deep respect for Hal and Marty, sometimes good people are the victims of business decisions. Unfortunate, but a reality.
Kelleher claims that the eviction has nothing to do with the Friday night dinners, something that has been widely speculated. According to Kelleher, the Hilton would like to continue to host the dinners. He says that his staff have all of the logistics down, from getting the patients on/off the bus and into the restaurant to providing the security detail for them. He also says that his staff greets the bus each week, including himself when he’s there, and that they are incredibly fond of the patients, which I’m sure is true. Because they have the routine down, and the soldiers are familiar with the staff, Kelleher says that the hotel is intent on continuing these dinners.
The Capital Hilton has agreed to host and pay for the May 5th dinner, so there will be no interruption for our troops. Beyond then, the Hilton has been in touch with some of the organizations which currently help sponsor the dinners at Fran O’Brien’s, and he’s hoping these groups will continue to do so. Kelleher also tells me that he has reached out to WRAMC and Deputy Secretary of Defense, Gordon England, and is awaiting direction from both of them with respect to next steps.
There is no question that the Capital Hilton has the space to accommodate our troops, and for some of them, given their injuries, privacy is a concern. Kelleher assures me that those concerns will be handled according to the wishes of our troops.
I told Kelleher that all of us in the military community feel an enormous amount of loyalty to Marty and Hal, the owners of Fran O’Brien’s, and that we are protective of them. The perception is that Marty and Hal are not getting a fair shake. Now, I understand that it’s difficult to separate the dinners from Marty and Hal, and I also understand the desire to crucify Hilton over this unwanted divorce, but the reality is, barring a miracle, the lease is not going to be renewed. So it seems to me, we have two missions. We need to be sure that these Friday night dinners continue — permanently — for the sake of our troops. Secondly, we want to do whatever we can to help and support Marty and Hal. With respect to the latter, Buzz Patterson, Matt and myself are working to get the ball rolling, beginning next week when MilBloggers will converge on our Nation’s Capital.
I also asked Kelleher if there was anything that he’s read or heard over the past few days that he wanted to clarify. He did say that some of the things that have been said about the Hilton Corporation are untrue, but didn’t give specifics. He again reiterated that the decision not to renew O’Brien’s lease had nothing to do with the Friday night dinners, therefore the speculation that this was a liability issue is untrue. What I failed to ask, and will follow up on, is if the Hilton Corporation planned to continue the dinners even before the controversy erupted. That’s something I would like to know. I wasn’t aware that Kelleher was going to call me, so I wasn’t prepared to interview him. Which is fine, because he’s giving you the opportunity to do just that.
I explained, as if Kelleher didn’t already know, that there is a lot of anxiety and anger in the military community over this incident. I suggested that it might be a good idea to have Hilton agree to field questions. I asked him if I were to solicit questions from the MilBlog community and submit them to him, would he agree to answer them. To my surprise, he said yes. So now it’s your turn, and I’m sure you’ll do better than me. Leave your questions for Hilton in the comment section. (My note: Click on the link to Andi’s blog at the top of this post, to submit a question to Mr. Kelleher) On Monday, I’ll submit them to Brian Kelleher, and once he’s answered them (hopefully without a PR filter being applied), I will post the answers. I will not submit questions that are obnoxious or have profanity in them, so keep the questions polite and on point. Direct and hard-hitting are fine, obnoxious won’t fly.
I realize there are two sides to every story. We know that Marty and Hal wanted to stay, but other than that, we haven’t heard much from them. I did call Hal, and have left my name and number. I will try to pursue this, get Fran O’Brien’s version of events and see how we can help them.
This situation has highlighted the power of MilBlogs. When I asked Kelleher if he was familiar with MilBlogs, he responded, “oh yeah.” It wasn’t so much his answer that convinced me we were having an impact, it was the tone of his voice. My guess is that he didn’t know what a MilBlog was this time last week. Kelleher also admitted that he is being inundated with email, so thanks to everyone for applying the pressure.
Play the reporter, and we’ll see what happens.
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