Mark Torkelsen of Legends Bar & Grill recently joined us on Lenard Team Connections. To date, his restaurant has donated over 2,000 meals (with plans to do more), and several nights a week he is delivering meals to hospital night shift workers.

He’s the Legend of the Night. 

Keep reading for more information about what Legends is doing, or listen to the full episode here. 

At the start of all of this, what changes did you make at Legends Bar & Grill for the public? And how quickly were those changes implemented?

Mark Torkelsen: Originally, when the governor put us down to 50% capacity - it was short lived - but we had to limit the amount of people coming into the restaurant. Right away, we knew it was something serious. So we started making sure that servers were wearing gloves. Normally the kitchen staff doesn't have masks on, but we gave them masks to wear at that time. And that only lasted two or three days before we went to take out only. And it's been crazy ever since. 

We're doing curbside. The support from the community has been absolutely great. You know, the phones are ringing. People are putting orders in with us and it's truly amazing.

We know you're making a lot of meal donations. Can you explain how that began, how it has evolved over the past few weeks, and who you're providing meals for?

Yes. So originally it started, my partner Todd and my best friend Frankie were working together, standing at the end of the bar doing takeout. And my friend Frankie said to me, how can we turn this negative into a positive - not only for Legends, but the community itself? So he said, Why don't we donate meals to people that are in need? And that's basically how it evolved. 

We started immediately doing individually prepackaged meals, and with the help from Christine from the Smithtown Children's Foundation, and Andrea from Smithtown Facebook Moms, I reached out to them. Yhey have been able to place all of my meals almost every day. 

The Sunday before Easter, my girlfriend and I set up a stand out front of Legends, a six foot folding table with 305 meals, and cars just lined up. They pulled up, no questions asked. Whether there were two people in the car or 10, however many meals you asked what we gave you. It was humbling because people were very genuine and asking for help and it was very nice.

And so how many meals have you donated so far?

What Legends has donated out of our own pockets is about 1,565 meals so far. And then if you add in the donations from our contributors, well over 2,000 meals. 

For example, Dan O'Neill, we did trays to Mather Hosptial night shift about 29-30 trays. White Wolf Cesspool donated about 20 trays to Huntington Hospital night shift last night, and Prime Wine & Liquor in Kings Park did about 20 trays to the St. Catherine's on Tuesday night. So, it's helping us, it keeps us busy and they're supporting us.

You're specifically saying the night shift. They seem to be the forgotten shift. 

They are the forgotten shift. I have friends in the healthcare industry, and they tell me they go into work and it's all the crumbs, the leftovers. Because most restaurants are shutting their doors between 7:00-9:00 pm and they don't have time to prep meals for 100 people. So we're staying open a little later, and we're delivering to the night shift and they are super grateful.

They're working just as hard as the day shift people, and they're not really getting the recognition they deserve. You know, the people during the day, they have hundreds of pies being delivered, heroes from the delis, trays of Italian food all day long. Whatever is left is what the night shift gets. They don't really have fresh meals coming in at nine o'clock at night. So they're super appreciative of us.

Do you need help getting these meals out at night?

Right now, I'm doing the deliveries myself. I'm going every night. Tonight we're going to be doing Plainview, on behalf of Steve Chen, from Miko, and then next week, Certified Cesspools has pledged to do seven hospitals, seven nights in a row. So we're excited about that. He's going to be doing about 20 trays per hospital seven nights, we can't wait for that next week. So we may need help next week, because that's going to be a big job.

Want to help? Click here!

Why do you think so many restaurants in particular are stepping up during these times?

I just feel like a lot of owners feel blessed that they have a roof over their head, there's food in the fridge and they can help people less fortunate than them. I was speaking earlier about my group of friends. We have done so much for the community. Angelo Cuccia of Alpine Bakery has been donating cakes and breads. He's been working with Christine. He's doing a fantastic job. Bobby lamb from Kumo in Stony Brook, he's donating 500 quick meals to Stony Brook Hospital. My friend Mike Alfano at Chefs in Northport has done over 600 donated pies. Joe Mannino from Mannino’s has been donating, Matt Acerno from Ciro's Kings Park. So us five guys have done so much. And, you know, it's just giving back. We're very blessed. So we're giving back to the community.

There's no competition right now. It's about getting it done for the community and people in need.

So what can people do to continue supporting legends and everything that you're doing?

We have a GoFundMe page set up on our Facebook page. Some people aren't comfortable with that, you can call up and we can take a credit card over the phone. I'll tag you, show you where your donation of food is going, send videos, all that good stuff. We do delivery and takeout seven days a week from 3:00-8:00pm. We're still doing gift cards, and that's the best ways you can support any restaurant owner right now.