It's the 'Only Free Restaurant in New York City'

On two nights a week in Harlem, dinner looks like fine dining but comes with no bill. The New York Times' Aimee Ortiz drops in on Refettorio Harlem, a nonprofit restaurant and pantry tucked inside Emanuel AME Church. At the self-dubbed "only free restaurant in New York City," volunteer chefs turn donated surplus food into three-course gourmet meals that might include an entree along the lines of "pollock on a potato croquette with a beurre blanc sauce and soy honey-glazed brussels sprouts," per the Times.

Its website conveys its mission: "Through out the week our team rescues otherwise imperfect food from waste, transforming surplus ingredients into nourishing meals served with dignity to our food insecure and social isolated community." Anyone can walk in for Wednesday and Friday dinner service, part of a global Food for Soul network created by Italian chef Massimo Bottura and his wife, Lara Gilmore, to tackle food waste, hunger, and social isolation (a dozen Refettorios operate in cities around the world).

Run by Free Food Harlem and funded mostly by private donations, this Refettorio serves as many as 800 meals a week. As a rep for suppliers Baldor Specialty Foods, which donates about 2,000 pounds a week, puts it, "We really believe that eating well and the joy of eating should not be a privilege." Read the full piece, which brings the experience to life via photos.