If you haven’t heard the moving story about Fran O’Brien’s Stadium Steak House and how proprieters Hal Koster and Marty O’Brien provide free steak dinners every Friday night for wounded vets recovering at Walter Reed Memorial and Bethesda Naval Hospital then please follow the link above.

There are 20 steps from the street to the steak house, which might seem no small matter for young veterans who have lost their legs to war.

But the stairs that lead down to Fran O’Brien’s Stadium Steak House are not just another obstacle to the hundreds of GIs severely wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan who have labored up and down them over the past two years.

Instead, for those whose future plans exploded the moment they were maimed, the steps _ and the landmark restaurant they lead to _ are a welcome-mat back to normal life.

“My first dinner was the first time I felt like I was home,” is the way Sgt. Steve Clark, who lost his arm to Iraq combat, describes the experience.

Virtually every Friday evening since 2003, the upscale restaurant three blocks from the White House has opened its doors to the young vets who are patients at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md.

Hal Koster, a co-owner of Fran’s, says one patient with a traumatic brain injury would leave his Walter Reed room voluntarily only to go to the restaurant. Over time, Koster said, the vet came back to life.

A bear-like, big-hearted man who did three tours in Vietnam on a helicopter gunship, Koster, 59, wants no publicity for his efforts and shrugs off questions of how much it has cost him and co-owner Marty O’Brien, son of the famous Washington Redskin who opened the restaurant. But extrapolating from the menu, the bill for each Steak Night can be close to $3,000.

Unfortunately there is a sad new twist to this story that just came to me this morning via email from a man I only know as Big John. The Hilton Hotel that leases the basement to Fran O’Brien’s is refusing to renew their lease and has handed them an eviction notice. They have provided no explanation.

Here is John’s email to me:

Marty and Hal need our help. For over six months they have been asking the Hilton Management for the terms for renewal of their lease. For over 5 months they were told not to worry they would have the renewal lease in a few weeks. About a month ago the Hilton folks stopped responding to their emails and voice messages for a status report and last week Hal and Marty received a one page eviction notice. No explanation was given. We suspect that at least part of the reason is the Friday night dinner Hal and Marty have been hosting for the last two and a half years. It may be that the Hilton folks are concerned about the increased liability of having so many severely injured and disabled soldiers in their basement each Friday (several have taken falls on the steep stairs at the entrance to Fran’s (but no law suits or problems have ensued). It may be that there is very limited and problematic wheelchair access to the restaurant (although no ADA complaints have been filed). The truth is that we don’t know for sure but what we do know is that this is unfair. Unless we can change the minds of the folks at the Hilton Hotel Fran’s will be out of business on May 1st and we will not have any place to hold our Friday night dinner for the injured soldiers and marines of Walter Reed and Bethesda Naval Hospitals. If you are so inclined I would like to ask you to call and/or email the following two officials at the Hilton and voice your support for Hal and Marty and express your concern for the reasoning behind this seemingly arbitrary decision.
Please call them tomorrow or Friday and feel free to share this with anyone else who might be willing to call.

Dan Boyle (212) 838-1558

daniel_a_boyle@hilton.com

Brian Kellaher (202) 393-1000

Coincidentally my company does a considerable amount of business with the Hilton Hotel. I left a voice mail for both Mr. Boyle and Mr. Kellaher yesterday morning and asked them to reconsider. It was not threatening or rude in any way. I only asked them to reconsider their decision if at all possible and do the right thing. I encourage all of you to phone them and do the same.

*****update**********

I just checked Mudville Gazette and they are on the story.