Jack Brandt Studios

In July, 2002, Garth Larcen and his son Max, who has muscular dystrophy, formed the nonprofit Get Lost MD Foundation and began assembling the support needed to open a restaurant fully accessible to individuals with physical, sensory, and cognitive disabilities for job training and employment as well as for dining. To be successful, they needed to build a team of community volunteers, raise capital, design and equip an appropriate facility, recruit workers interested in food service careers, train them, and come up with a restaurant concept which would attract enough customers, in an extremely competitive market, to sustain both its dining operations and the training program.

Local restaurateurs and chefs volunteered to provide guidance and training. A local church offered its banquet kitchen as a training location until the restaurant could be built and equipped. State agencies, community and advocacy organizations, the area´s center for independent living, and local schools referred potential trainees. Training began, and its first graduates began to find employment in other food service operations before the Larcens could even open their restaurant. Meanwhile, a campaign of creative fundraising activities began to assemble the capital needed to open the restaurant.

On January 15, 2005, Max´s Positive Vibe Cafè opened in the Stratford Hills Shopping Center in Southside Richmond. Today, the Positive Vibe Cafè is a popular neighborhood restaurant that draws diners from far and wide. Its automatic door opens on a comfortable and attractive dining room subtly adapted to be accessible to everyone. Wheelchair users pass easily through wide aisles to booths with fold out tables or to a lowered bar. The dècor is complimented by the work of artists with disabilities. Several nights a week, live entertainment is provided, sometimes featuring musicians with disabilities. Lunch and dinner menus feature critically-acclaimed fare emphasizing variety, fresh wholesome ingredients, rich flavors, and attractive presentation.

Training is provided in food preparation, customer service, and restaurant management with an emphasis on accommodating each individual´s needs. Bartenders, servers, and entertainers include volunteers who work for tips and serve as role models for the trainees. Many of the Cafès staff are graduates of its training program. Additional graduates find employment in other food service operations. A catering service-supported in-part by start-up funding approved by the Virginia General Assembly following their receipt of the 2005 Outstanding Achievement Award-is growing, and ways of expanding that operation and the additional training and employment opportunities it provides are being explored. Restaurant and catering revenues support the training programs, and the Cafè expects to be self-sufficient in just a few years.

Max´s Positive Vibe Cafè has attracted attention and awards from groups engaged in expanding services and supports for people with disabilities as well as from hospitality industry organizations. Local media coverage led to national newspaper and television attention. Resulting inquiries about duplicating Max and Garth´s training and employment model have come from across the country and as far away as New Zealand.