Second Chance Employer Profile
Eastside Fish Fry
After serving 30 months in federal prison for growing marijuana, Henry Meyer had difficulty finding a job. No one would hire him.
But Meyer liked to cook, worked in the prison kitchen and learned unconventional cooking methods while incarcerated. Using a stinger water heater immersed in a bucket of water he cooked chicken and seasoning with rice in a trash bag, a dish that proved popular among his friends in prison. And it was his cooking skills that helped him build a business, Eastside Fish Fry, that is now one of Lansing, Mich.’s most famous eateries.
Meyer considered opening a restaurant in a building he owned that had once housed a sub sandwich shop and had a kitchen. But it was a gamble. “I knew that if I opened the restaurant I would be broke,” he says. “I didn’t want to sell drugs. I couldn’t go work for someone. I had four felonies on my record. I would either fail by trying or fail by not trying.”
He launched Eastside Fish Fry & Grill in 2012 and did lose money the first six months. But gradually the business began to turn around. And in 2017, the restaurant got its lucky break, when it appeared on Guy Fieri’s Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives on the Food Network.
“I had lines out the door for 90 days after the show originally aired,” Meyer says. And that appearance solidified the success of a restaurant that not only serves fried fish but is also known for its fried chicken and chicken wings among other menu items.
Second chance hiring practices
After his business started to grow in its early days, Meyer realized he had to start hiring people. “And so, I did what normal people do. I put an ad up and got a lot of applicants – regular people. But a couple of the applicants came in who were felons. They were complaining about how they couldn’t get jobs. And they didn’t have any money,” he says. “I hired them right away.”
Two of those original second chance hires have advanced and are still working at Eastside Fish Fry. One is now the manager and the other the head cook.
Out of his current 22 workers, 16 are formerly incarcerated. Over the course of the restaurant’s history, Meyer has hired more than 200 second chance employees. He doesn’t have to look very hard for potential employees. Mostly they find him, thanks to the publicity generated by reporters who regularly tell his story.
In addition to workers themselves, he often gets calls from mothers and girlfriends of guys in prison.
“They’ll say, ‘My husband’s getting out of prison in 60 days.’ And I say, ‘Here’s my cell phone number. Tell him to call me when he gets out, and I’ll have a spot for him,” Meyer says. “You know how good it feels to be the person who gives them hope.”
The jobs that Eastside Fish Fry employees do are dishwasher, cook, prep cook, customer service, assistant manager and manager. Workers are trained through reading pamphlets and working with one of the managers for their first three or four days on the job.
But Meyer makes it clear, he doesn’t hire individuals who were formerly incarcerated strictly out of the goodness of his heart. “I hire felons because I’m a felon, and nobody helped me out. I want to help them, but it’s just not that. I’m a business man. If it don’t make dollars, it don’t make sense,” he says. And he adds that over the past 12 years, his second chance employees have helped him build a million-dollar business.
The people he hires don’t need qualifications. “Only a smile and a determination to stay out of prison. That’s all they need,” Meyer says.
He doesn’t do background checks but will, for the most part, refuse to hire violent or sexual offenders. Meyer finds out their record either by asking them directly or checking in with the local probation office. He has such a good relationship with the probation officers in Lansing that they sometimes call him with potential job candidates.
“Mostly I hire anybody. I don’t want to hear about it (their past). It’s over. You’re not in prison anymore. Let’s not still think of yourself as a felon. But think of yourself as a worker,” Meyer says.
He considers the jobs he offers a stepping stone to something better and doesn’t mind if the people he hires move on. “If I can show somebody that they can do more and I can profit from it, at least I’ll have a good worker for a few years,” he says.
“I wish other business people would listen to me when I say, “They’re my best employees.” Why not take a chance with a guy who really needs it. My guys can’t just go get a job somewhere else. They need me just as much as much I need them. And it makes me money.”
If someone has to hire three people, Meyer recommends that one of them be a felon. He wishes people would give more chances to offenders.
The rewards of second chance hiring, according to Meyer, go beyond just getting a great employee.
“It’s giving people that I don’t even know hope in general. I was hopeless in prison for so many days. A lot of it was based on what was I going to do when I get out. All I knew was selling drugs. It made me sad. It made me mad,” he says. “For me to be in a position right now to give strangers hope gives me hope. Watching the transition of a man fresh out of prison who is scared and has no confidence. Then he comes in my office and leaves with a smile and a job. He leaves with hope. That is powerful for him – and for me.”
As far as advice for others who may be thinking about creating second chance hiring opportunities, Meyer has something to offer.
“It’s a benefit for your company. Don’t think about it as a bad thing. A lot of people think that felons are going to burn them. But it’s the other way around,” he says. “They’re so worried about going back to jail and losing their job that they’re the best employees I have. Go to parole officers and tell them what you’re doing, and they’ll send candidates your way. It will benefit your company.”