After seven years in prison for drug dealing, Dink Dawson is opening a brick-and-mortar restaurant in his old Detroit neighborhood, empowered by a prison culinary program that has been transforming lives for decades.
Chef Jimmy Lee Hill has led the Coldwater Kitchen program at the Lakeland Correctional Facility in Coldwater, Michigan for three decades, providing another path for those incarcerated. On Friday, the award-winning film “Coldwater Kitchen” that tells the story will be shown for free at the Love Building. Dinner will be catered by Dawson; a Q&A panel with the team behind the Coldwater Kitchen program exploring the impact of incarceration for returning citizens will follow. One-third of Americans have experience with the criminal justice system.
“Taking the program, it taught me more than just cooking – the business aspect of it, how to run a business and how to maintain it,” said Dawson, who currently operates The Green Mile Grille food truck five days a week at the site of the future brick-and-mortar, 14020 Gratiot. This year, Dawson received a $20,000 “community violence intervention” Motor City Match award, which will help him open by February or March 2025. The restaurant will focus on urban soul food, he said.
“Everything from barbeque to lamb chops to lobster, we pretty much do everything,” said Dawson. “I’m trying to bring a three-star experience back to my neighborhood where the prices are lower but they can still have the experience.”
Since its debut in 2022, “Coldwater Kitchen” won a coveted James Beard award and most recently was selected for the U.S. Department of State’s “film diplomacy” program, the American Film Showcase, as one of 43 documentaries that will be shown in U.S. embassies in dozens of countries in 2025.
Coldwater Kitchen co-director and former Detroit Free Press restaurant critic Mark Kurlyandchik said he hopes the film touches the two-thirds of Americans who don’t have direct experience with the criminal justice system.
“The whole goal of the film is to make people see a different side of this group of people that we as a society have thoroughly dehumanized,” he said.
The film is not currently available for online streaming, but community groups can request to host a small screening, said Kurlyandchik.
Dawson said he has participated in other screenings since the film’s release, which is a different experience every time depending on the crowd. But he said one thing has stayed consistent.
“It’s an emotional rollercoaster. Get you some napkins.”
Tickets are required for tomorrow’s free event and can be reserved here: https://detroitjustice.org/event/coldwater-kitchen-screening/. Sign up for Coldwater Kitchen’s newsletter to stay in the loop about future screenings and campaigns.
