No money? No problem. This Alabama restaurant is open to all
When one of her friends mentioned that she couldn’t afford the luxury of having a meal at a restaurant, it gave Lisa McMillan an idea.
“I thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be nice if people could just go into a restaurant and didn’t have to worry about paying if they didn’t have the money?” McMillan said.
That was in 2006. Without the funds to support her idea at the time, McMillan decided to do what she could, cooking meals in her own home and delivering them to people in need.
Years later, McMillan finally saw her long-held dream come true. In 2018, she and her husband, Freddie, opened Drexell and Honeybee’s in Brewton, Alabama, a donations-only restaurant. With no cash register and only a donations basket at the door, McMillan welcomes everyone to enjoy a hot meal at her table.
“Everyone who comes in here gets a meat, two sides and a dessert,” she said. “And when they get ready to leave, they can put money in the donation box, or they can just walk out the door. We don’t look to see what they do.”
Open three days a week for lunch, McMillan said people line up to get in the door. She and her husband serve about 130 meals a day – about 20,000 a year – with the help of three volunteers.
“I’m so proud of Lisa,” said Ora Lett, a volunteer who has been friends with McMillan since high school. “It means so much to work for someone who is a true servant of God. Lisa has the gift and the talent and the integrity to do the job. She not only serves food, but she feeds the need of the people.”
Another volunteer, Chrystal Moore-Lewis, said working at Drexell and Honeybee’s means so much to her that she drives more than an hour from her home in Niceville, Florida, to Brewton three days a week to lend a hand. She said the restaurant “saved her life” when she was struggling through a divorce.
The food business is hard, backbreaking work, McMillan said, but it’s worth it.
“There could be 20 people in that line, and somebody says, ‘Lisa, only two of those people need your help,’” she said. “It wouldn’t matter. I’d feed all 20 of them. Then, I’d know I fed the two people who needed my help.”
The Alabama Power Foundation recently provided a grant to the nonprofit restaurant, supporting its mission of feeding the “lonely and hungry.”
McMillan said she will use the grant to buy even more groceries for the restaurant. The daily menu depends on whatever she finds on sale at the local supermarket, she added.
“The grant gives us peace of mind,” McMillan said. “There have been times that the money has been low, and now we have this nest egg. We’re so grateful.”
Alabama Power Community Relations Manager Tripp Ward and Mobile Division Area Manager Erin Delaporte presented the grant to Drexell and Honeybee’s.
“I think that Drexell and Honeybee’s mission mirrors our company’s core values and beliefs, which are to support the communities we serve,” Ward said. “When you look at the crowd, you see true diversity and inclusion. They provide food to everyone, from business owners to those who are homeless and cannot pay. Everyone is valued and treated the same when they come into the restaurant.”
Ward said having the opportunity to deliver the grant to Drexell and Honeybee’s was truly special for him.
“Being part of a company that supports community kitchens means I have come full circle,” Ward said. “As a child, my family and I benefited from kitchens like this.”
He said to be a part of efforts to support the restaurant “… gives me the opportunity to reflect on how good God has been to me.”
Along with the foundation, others across the nation have noticed what McMillan is doing to feed the hungry in Brewton. Recently, the NBC morning show Today featured the restaurant and how McMillan and her husband are giving back.
Although many people from the Brewton area are regulars at Drexell and Honeybee’s, travelers on their way to and from Florida’s beaches also stop for a bite. And business has increased even more since the Today show report aired in January.
Dreams do come true
McMillan, who has worked in the food industry for years in different capacities, said she never thought she could turn her idea of opening a donations-only restaurant into reality. But then, her husband offered to use his retirement fund to support the business.
“If it hadn’t been for Freddie, this would not be, because I certainly didn’t have the funds to do it on my own,” McMillan said. “It was just a dream until he said we’ll do it.”
McMillan said people often ask her why she named the restaurant Drexell and Honeybee’s. The idea that came to her while she was living in California 30 years ago.
“I was riding down the road one day, and it so happened I saw a restaurant for lease,” she said. “I didn’t have a quarter in my pocket, but I thought that would make a cute little ice cream shop. I was daydreaming about what I would name it if I got it, and Drexell and Honeybee’s just popped into my head. I remembered that name from all those years ago.”
McMillan said her No. 1 goal is to provide her guests with meals that “look good and taste good.”
“We want our restaurant to look nice enough that people who can pay can’t complain about how it looks and people who don’t have money can come in and say, ‘Wow, I ate at a really nice place today.’”
McMillan said having the ability to serve others through her restaurant “means the world” to her.
“My biggest joy is serving people and having to struggle a little bit to do it. That just means I have to push harder,” she said. “I know God has put me here to serve other people. I actually have the opportunity to do God’s will right here on Earth.”
To learn more about McMillan and her mission, and to help support the cause, visit drexellandhoneybees.com.