Manhattan Restaurateur Invites Homeless People to Sleep and Eat in His Restaurant

Every Wednesday night, Ali Riza Dogan leaves his restaurant in Midtown Manhattan and heads out into the city to serve hot food to people living on the streets. When temperatures drop to dangerous lows, he tapes a handwritten sign to his window: "If anyone is staying outside tonight, you can stay inside. The heat is on overnight."

Dogan is the owner of Ali Baba Mediterranean & Turkish Cuisine on East 53rd Street in Manhattan, and for nearly six years he has quietly turned his restaurant into something more than a place to eat. It is, when the need is there, a shelter.

"We're all human beings," he told TODAY.

A Personal History Behind the Mission

Dogan's generosity is rooted in something he has never been able to forget. He arrived in the United States with his father decades ago — without a home, without a job, and unable to speak the language. On one of his first nights in New York City, he found himself sleeping in a hallway. When morning came, he made his way to a shopping area where he managed to get help calling his uncle, who came to get him.

"I never forget that day," Dogan said. "It is a very bad memory for me still."

He worked as a dishwasher to survive, eventually opening his first restaurant in 1997 alongside his father. The success that followed never erased the memory of what it felt like to have nowhere to go.

"When I opened that spot, there was a shelter next to our restaurant," he said. "Seeing that, I always fed them, because I was lost myself."

What He Does Every Week

Every Wednesday, Dogan runs a meal program at the restaurant, serving hot, nutritious food to anyone who walks through the door — no questions asked. The program has been running for close to six years.

When temperatures become life-threatening, the restaurant's vestibule opens overnight as a warm, dry place to sleep. There is no access to the dining area or kitchen, but the heated entryway provides protection from the cold. On Feb. 8 of this year, when temperatures in New York City plunged to 14 degrees below zero, the sign went up in Dogan's window.

He also regularly takes to the streets himself, handing out sleeping bags, warm clothing, and meals. He documents much of it on his personal social media accounts, where he has built a following of hundreds of thousands of people.

"Sometimes I cannot sleep at night," he wrote in one post. "Because I think about the people forced to stay outside in the freezing cold. Those who have never lived through the streets may not understand. But those who sleep outside know very well — sometimes surviving one cold night is a battle for life itself."

"We Don't See This as Charity"

On the Ali Baba Instagram page, Dogan has been direct about the philosophy behind what he does. "Please never forget — one plate of food means one human life," he wrote. "Every meal you enjoy at Alibaba becomes a warm meal for someone in need — or the homeless and immigrants. We don't see this as charity. We see it as humanity."

The response online has been significant. Neighbors stop by regularly to donate money to the cause, though Dogan says he does not accept donations. He is in the process of starting a foundation for people who want to contribute in a more organized way.

One commenter from Canada wrote that on their next trip to New York City, they would be visiting Ali Baba specifically — and hoped to help serve dinner on a Wednesday if the timing worked out.

"Make someone happy," Dogan said. "That's the most important thing in life. It doesn't matter what religion you are, what country you are from, what color you are — it doesn't make a difference. We are all human beings."

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