By Cynthia Gerdes, cofounder of Hell’s Kitchen

They say “it takes a village,” and on occasion, our village reaches much further than downtown. At the risk of virtue signaling, the employee-owners of Hell's Kitchen couldn't be prouder to have almost doubled the population of Courtland, Minnesota on April 6, as they raised funds for the small city's volunteer fire department. The event, called Fire & Brimstone II, honored two firefighters who were engaged to be married and tragically lost their lives within 14 months of each other.

This was the second time in a decade that Hell’s Kitchen ventured out of the Twin Cities to put on a community pancake feed featuring our chef/founder Mitch Omer's legendary Lemon Ricotta Hotcakes. The first foray 10 years ago found us battling a fierce blizzard while our caravan of cars and trucks – packed with supplies, cooking equipment, and a huge bounty of food – slowly trekked through the storm for seven hours to raise money for the Embarrass Volunteer Fire Department in northern Minnesota. Throughout his adult life, Omer (who passed away in 2015) donated to fire departments as penance for setting fires while he was an unruly, uncontrollable wild child. It wasn’t until his early 40s that our erratic, larger-than-life, visionary leader’s manic episodes were finally diagnosed as bipolar disorder.

Raising over $28,000 (!!!) on April 6 was never intended to be self-promotional; instead, the fundraiser was our employee-owners' way of continuing our beloved chef's admiration of firefighters. And because we've always been transparent about our ups and downs, including harrowing stories about the many times Hell’s Kitchen should have gone out of business, we'll continue our behind-the-scenes frankness and admit that there's no way in hell we could have pulled this off by ourselves. After our year-long covid closure, it's still a dance to get back to profitability since downtown offices won't be back at pre-COVID levels for years, if ever. So pulling off a fundraiser of this magnitude truly brought the term "it takes a village" to life. Kristi Mae Schroer and Helping Minnesota Heroes worked tirelessly to spearhead the efforts, coordinating the logistics, donations of additional food and money from generous businesses, and all of the volunteers who signed up en masse to help sell tickets, cook, sling Bloody Mary's, run the silent auction, clear tables, and stay on top of crowd control. And the crowd! Oh, the crowd! Well over a thousand people showed up from the entire region, including firefighters who drove from the Twin Cities in a show of solidarity.

There wasn't a dry eye in the community hall when Fire Chief Ubel told the packed house how touched his team was for the incredible show of support. But we also want to thank you, our downtown Minneapolis community, from the bottom of our hearts. Your visits to Hell's Kitchen are, quite simply, the reason we were able to pay it forward and double the population of Courtland for one helluva fundraiser.

Hell’s Kitchen is located at 80 S. Ninth St. After a rocky post-COVID relaunch, it’s now (finally) open seven days a week, Monday through Saturday from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. and Sunday from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.