More than a meal: Crystal’s Country Diner builds a family for those in recovery
By Megan Matthews
Click here for updates on this story
SHIVELY, Kentucky (WLKY) — At Crystal’s Country Diner, the plates come out piled with comfort food: fried chicken, green beans and the kind of home-country cooking. But the mission goes beyond the menu.
If you look past the plates, you won’t just see employees, you’ll see a family, and owner Crystal Young says that’s exactly what she’s built.
“They call me momma, you know, momma?” Young said. “So it makes me feel good because they are just sweet, sweet people. Very sweet.”
Young opened the diner after being asked in September to launch the restaurant in partnership with Recovery Now, a program that helps people dealing with substance abuse.
For Young, the decision was personal.
“My son, I lost him four years ago to the drugs,” Young said. “And so this gave me an opportunity to kind of give back to the community and help people move forward in their life because they need a starting point.”
That starting point is already taking shape for employees like Dominic Parsons, the diner’s kitchen manager, who said the job represents a chance he never expected to have.
“She seen something in me that I didn’t see in myself,” Parsons said. “And, she took a leap of faith, and it feels good to step up to the plate.”
Parsons said the diner’s culture is built on accountability and support, the kind that can matter most during recovery.
“There’s not a stranger amongst us. We’re all close. So we’re our own little village,” Parsons said. “We come from different backgrounds, but have the same story, different struggles.”
Young hopes the restaurant can be a visible reminder that recovery is possible, and that people trying to rebuild their lives deserve opportunity, not judgment.
“We’re all here to help each other out in this world and to see who we can, you know, pick up and, and help move forward in their life,” Young said. “And I hope that this has touched some of them and they say, hey, I think now’s the time.”
Crystal’s Country Diner will also host AA meetings during the week.
Please note: This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate and does not contain original CNN reporting. This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.