Barry’s Cheesesteaks and More is Looking for a Little Help
Barry Washington in his original Louisville location, circa 2018. Photos by Kevin Gibson
UPDATE: Barry Washington has ended the GoFundMe. He posted on Facebook, “Today I am taking down the GoFundMe page and Venmo. I have read some of your comments and the things you are saying about me and I'm not upset. We have received about $400 that I will be donating to the women's shelter on 2nd street.” He expanded on this in a video.
Recently, the buzz went around on social media and in local news that local restaurant Barry’s Cheesesteaks and More, beloved by many, was in danger of closing. The response was fans of the eatery’s food, based around traditional Philadelphia-style cheesesteak sandwiches, turning out in droves to offer some relief.
According to a post by owner Barry Washington on the restaurant’s Facebook page, some fans requested a GoFundMe campaign so they could help — and that’s just what Washington did. The title of the fundraiser is “Save Barry’s Cheesesteaks” — if you’d like to help out Barry’s with a donation, you can do so right here.
“I truly appreciate that,” Washington said in a video posted Feb. 16, “I didn’t know anything about how to get those things going.”
Washington has shared that a store he opened and later closed on Bardstown Road has been the root of financial issues and an awarded Small Business Association grant has not come through due to problems with getting a loan. He also said he has been experiencing health issues recently, which have slowed him down. The hope is to get right financially and ultimately reopen the Bardstown Road location. In a Feb. 5 post, he said he needs $50,000; the GoFundMe goal is $100,000.
The main location was closed on Wednesday, but Washington said it will be open Thursday through Sunday, and he’ll be in the kitchen cooking.
“I just thank you so much for how kind you’ve been in these days,” he says in the video.
Meanwhile, below an excerpt from my book Unique Eats & Eateries of Louisville about Barry’s when he was still in his original location.
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When Barry Washington opened his business in 2013, it was more than just to have a namesake restaurant serving food he loved – the venture came with a unique vision and mission, which was to exclusively employ West End youths. His mission was to teach them how to run a business so they didn’t fall into the same dead-end existence he nearly did.
Barry had worked in restaurants for much of his life, including a stint as head chef at a country club, but after having a rough youth, he turned to crime and addiction. So, Barry’s Cheese Steaks and More is not only a way to help others not follow the same path to being clean, it’s also a bit of redemption for a guy who, while living in Philadelphia, was stabbed forty-one times and left for dead by a pair of drug dealers.
Just before Christmas in 1995, addicted to drugs and living in an abandoned house, he found a new path when he asked two men for money, and they invited him to their fellowship. Barry was saved that night, and ended up getting clean, getting away from his dangerous lifestyle, and moving to Louisville, earning multiple college degrees. And this is a man who, for most of his life, was illiterate.
“I could always cook,” he said, “but reading wasn’t my strong suit.”
His non-descript little lime-green restaurant may not look like much on the outside, but people come in droves and line up to get his signature sandwiches like the many cheesesteaks, burgers, and wings – not to mention the positive atmosphere, with the loose theme of faith, love and hope. If you go, you may have to wait a little while so your sandwich or wings can be prepared fresh, but Barry and his crew will make it worthwhile. He had to wait a while to get what he wanted, too.
