One of Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed’s favorite restaurants is the Real Chow Baby — and it isn’t just because of the 17 signature stir fry sauces.
Reed’s friend of more than 20 years, Chip Joyner, who owns the Ponce de Leon eatery, has come up with a novel way to help fund the city’s “Centers of Hope” recreation centers.
Diners have been encouraged to include an additional tip on their bills that go directly toward the centers. In addition, in 2010 a nickel from every bowl of stir fry sold was donated to the centers.
Last year, Joyner and his wife, Carol, donated $7,674 to Centers of Hope. That is still millions of dollars from where Reed needs to be to enhance the city’s 33 recreation centers, but it is a start.
Although the city has spent $3.7 million to reopen and staff all of the city’s recreation centers, Reed is depending on philanthropic and corporate dollars to fund their enhancements into Centers of Hope.
So far, about $1.4 million has been raised. Most of that came from the Coca-Cola Co., which announced a $1 million donation last month.
Joyner’s idea came from Turner Broadcasting, which has been donating $1 for every CNN tour ticket sold. Joyner said he initially considered a penny per bowl, since the store was new and untested, but finally settled on a nickel.
“It was a tough pill to swallow, but the people of Atlanta support us every day. With budgets the way that they are, private businesses can pick up some of the slack,” said Joyner, whose family has been in the restaurant business for decades and also owns a Chow Baby on Howell Mill Road. “This has been a fun effort and we had no idea that we would have this kind of success.”
Joyner said he moved to Atlanta in 1995 from California and the first person he called was Reed, an old Howard University buddy, who took him to lunch.
The two had formed a unique bond in college. Reed was, and still is, a staunch Democrat. Joyner was president of the college Republicans. Yet Reed helped him with his speeches.
“When we told him our idea, he just thought it was really generous of us,” Joyner said.
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