Lee Schrager Throws a Socially Distant Bake Sale Every Sunday
Update: This event is now a weekly bake sale with special guests and multiple vendors.
Restaurant relief is alive and well, even as restaurants gear up to reopen. For the fourth week, Lee Brian Schrager is hosting his “Putting on the Pounds (LBS)” Bake Sale benefiting the SOBEWFF® & FIU Chaplin School Hospitality Industry Relief Fund, providing immediate financial support to independently owned and operated restaurants and bars impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic in South Florida.
From noon until sold out on Sun., May 17 from noon until sold out, the bake sale in front of Schrager's Coral Gables house features drive-through convenience and $25 boxes of treats, including:
• Night Owl Cookies – box of 6 signature homemade cookies
• Chef Adrianne Calvo – box of dark chocolate Nutella croissant bread pudding
• Zak the Baker – box of chocolate and cinnamon babka
• Cao Chocolates – box of 12 Miami-inspired bonbons and truffles
• The Salty Donut – box of 6 chef-made, small-batch craft donuts
• La Petite Maison – cocktail kit
• The Dumpling Lady Miami – box of 12 spicy pork dumplings
• Bar Lab – cocktail mixer kit featuring premade mixes of two cocktails (alcohol not included)
• Cielito Artisan Pops – box of 5 assorted cream and fruit flavored ice pops
Special guests stopping by throughout the afternoon include NBC 6 anchor Roxanne Vargas, CBS 4 journalist Lisa Petrillo, Univision's Raúl de Molina, ChatChow TV founder Gio Gutierrez, ABC 10 anchor Louis Aguirre, and Schrager's dogs, Charlie and Stanley Brown.
“Besides getting out to enjoy some of the best food and beverages in South Florida, I do believe that people who drive to our bake sale are really motivated to support our local restaurant and hospitality community,” says Schrager, founder and director of SOBEWFF. “The struggle for these hard-working small businesses doesn’t end when they are allowed to reopen. With limits on occupancy and other safety restrictions, restaurants and bars that can reopen to guests will continue to face significant financial challenges. We have to be here for them with ongoing financial relief as they modify their business models and adjust to a new normal for the hospitality industry.”
To date, the Fund has raised more than $1.6 million and has already granted $1.4 million to more than 500 local restaurants in South Florida.
This Sunday, you can buy some Night Owl Cookies and help out area restaurants.
In this pandemic version of a PTA bake sale, you drive up, pick up a box of Night Owl cookies, wave hi to SOBEWFF’s Lee Schrager and his two dogs, the Browns, and drive off.
“If you’re looking to get some fresh air this Sunday and want to drive to the Gables, would love to see you,” says Schrager, who will be joined by political commentator Ana Navarro and local TV personality Belkys Nerey for the event.
Only 150 boxes will be available for $20 cash (exact change only, please) between noon and 4pm or until sold out. Proceeds benefit the SOBEWFF and FIU Chaplin School of Hospitality Industry Relief Fund, launched last month to support to independently owned and operated restaurants and bars impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties. To date, it has provided more than $1.2 million in grants to more than 400 local restaurants in South Florida.
The bake sale also kicks off a national Night Owl Cookie campaign, where 30 percent of the company’s national online sales will be directed to the Fund.
“There’s nothing like the draw of indulging in some delectable cookies to get people out, so I hope to see all my friends from the neighborhood and throughout Miami on Sunday to support this great cause,” says Schrager.
Follow Lee on Instagram @leeschrager to get the bake sale address Saturday night.
