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When he needs to eat in a restaurant, René Lefebvre sometimes takes to the streets close to the downtown Y, the place he lives, and panhandles — panning, he calls it — till he has sufficient to pay for a meal, typically at both the Elgin Avenue or Bramasole Diner.
On Monday — Christmas Day — Lefebvre was spared that preliminary trouble, as Bramasole cook dinner and supervisor John Zacher invited the 62-year-old for a free Christmas dinner on the widespread Financial institution Avenue diner, the place Lefebvre says he eats each two or three days.
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“John mentioned, ‘This one’s on us,’ ” mentioned Lefebvre, seated by himself at a desk close to the entrance of the restaurant.
Not that the worth — $18 for turkey, ham and all of the fixings, in addition to dessert — was the deciding issue. Lefebvre says he would have paid anyway, however the sort gesture was nonetheless appreciated. Later, he mentioned, he may go dwelling to chill out or perform a little panning.
In the meantime, Steve Holst, sporting a vivid purple cowboy hat, inexperienced shirt and red-and-white striped Ottawa Senators scarf, sat at a desk within the nook on the again, farthest from the door. It was the identical desk, he mentioned, the place he used to take his breaks when he labored on the diner. That was just for eight months, virtually a decade in the past, after mental-health points despatched him right into a tumble and a hospital, after which Bramasole proprietor John Balestra threw him a lifeline.
“It acquired me again on my ft and interacting with individuals,” mentioned Holst. “It acquired my confidence again.”
It’s not all sunshine on a regular basis. Holst has a few estranged grownup daughters and two grandchildren that he didn’t count on to see this Christmas. However he wasn’t alone; as he awaited his meal, he’d propped up his cellphone and was having fun with a video chat together with his fiancée, Kanene Ugbaja, in Nigeria. The remainder of his Christmas Day, he mentioned, could be full of NFL video games.
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At an adjoining desk, Clint Iverson and Sara Martin, and their 18-month-old son, Calvin Iverson, had simply ordered their breakfast, for the second straight 12 months making the most of the truth that Bramasole — which Clint describes as “our personal private little Cheers” — had opted to open on Christmas Day.
“We’ve been coming right here virtually each weekend since I used to be pregnant with Calvin,” mentioned Sara. “We come right here as a result of we find it irresistible.” For them, breakfast on the diner was virtually the calm earlier than the remainder of their Christmas — dinner that evening at Sara’s mom’s dwelling, adopted by an onslaught of youngsters at their Overbook dwelling on Boxing Day.
Over 4 hours on Monday, from 10 a.m. till 2 p.m., the cubicles, tables and counter hosted a revolving parade of individuals and tales. Martin Smith and Jeannie Bernwell, carrying Christmas sweaters, had been having breakfast earlier than heading dwelling to make dinner for buddies, the place Smith would change sweaters for the one which lit up. At one other desk, Julie Levesque and Andy Atkins simply wished to seek out someplace to have breakfast. “The bacon is what brings me right here,” half-joked Levesque.
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Don Carter arrived early from his Sandy Hill dwelling, and waited virtually half an hour earlier than the diner opened. “I reside alone, however I by no means keep dwelling all day,” he mentioned. “I can cook dinner, however it’s not the identical. It’s good to speak to individuals.”
David Kirk, who later within the day deliberate to take his sequined Christmas ball cap to Pembroke for a household gathering, described the diner’s clientele as “a melting pot.”
“It’s all walks of life,” he mentioned, “good, dangerous or in any other case.”
This was simply the second 12 months that Bramasole opened on Christmas Day, with Zacher and server Harps Sandhu, neither with household on the town, opting to spend one other day at work.
“We weren’t going anyplace, so we determined we might as nicely do one thing,” mentioned Zacher. “And there’s an actual sense of group right here, as a result of we’ve made it that approach. There are individuals who don’t have household, however there are additionally {couples}, and other people with youngsters.”
And simply because the odor of turkey, stuffing and occasional wafted all through the room, so too did the sensation of goodwill. At one finish of the diner counter sat a small pile of wrapped presents and a set tin, with an indication urging prospects to “donate and select a present,” with proceeds going to assist the much less lucky.
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At one level, Sandhu hugged a favorite buyer. Zacher took a second from the grill to shake palms and greet one other. Musician Victor Nesrallah, in the meantime, who solely realized on Saturday that the diner could be open on Monday, confirmed up together with his guitar to carry out. “I wished to do it simply to share,” he mentioned. “To share what I’ve, share what I’ve been doing for a very long time.”
And so he did, most poignantly, maybe, with a music he merely titled Christmas Music. “I nonetheless imagine in Christmas,” he sang. “I nonetheless imagine in hope. I nonetheless imagine in peace and pleasure for all of the world. I nonetheless imagine in Christmas time.”
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