Unanderra restaurant to spread joy by serving Christmas Eve breakfast to families in need

This Christmas Eve, Ambiance Ristorante in Unanderra will host a special breakfast for families in need, carrying on a long tradition that began with owner John Dwarte’s family years earlier.

Now in their fourth year hosting a Christmas Eve event at their Unanderra restaurant, John and his wife Aleida are encouraging others to give back in ways that fit their means, as they switch things up by offering breakfast instead of lunch this year.

“We decided each year we’ll try and change up the offering a little bit, that way we can target different individuals,” Aleida said.

On offer will be breakfast platters, with sweet and savoury offerings for those invited through charity organisations.

Aleida said the idea was a long family tradition which began with John’s parents.

“My husband and I both grew up working for his parents, and they owned McDonald’s restaurants in the Illawarra,” she said.

“McDonald’s always did a Christmas Eve charity dinner for as long as we worked there, where they handed out invitations to places like the Salvation Army and other groups, to allow families to come down and enjoy dinner on Christmas Eve on McDonald’s.

“When we left the McDonald’s business, we wanted to make sure we carried on the values we were taught while we were working for his parents into our own business.”

Aleida said after a successful first year, they decided to make it an annual event.

She said each year they generated invitations to send to charities, such as the Salvation Army, St Vincent de Paul, Figtree Anglican Church, Unanderra Catholic Church, Women Illawarra and domestic violence refuges.

“We try to utilise the organisations that have that direct reach to people in vulnerable situations,” she said.

“We don’t believe we’re the right judge of who’s worthy and who’s not. That’s not our role.

“So we are very happy that all of those organisations we’ve reached out to over the last few years have always been very keen to get involved and send over a few families.

“We usually find that each organisation sends two, three or four families, and then by the end of that, we’ve got a full restaurant of about 80, which is great.”

She said the atmosphere in the restaurant during that meal was something else.

“Honestly, it feels kind of magical, because you’ve got all our staff who are so proud to be working on that day as well,” she said.

“We’re all happy that we’re able to put this on.

“Then as the customers start arriving, and then all this food comes out that they may not generally have the opportunity to experience at other times during the year, there is definitely a fantastic vibe within the restaurant.”

She said the candidates often included a high proportion of kids, with most families bringing at least two children.

“Our customers get involved each year by donating presents for us to give to the kids,” she said.

“The first year we did it, we did have a lot of our customers asking how they could get involved, and a lot of them wanted to make monetary donations towards the event.”

However, Aleida said they didn’t feel they could take money, seeing the event as their financial contribution.

“We found that a great way for our customers to get involved was to bring down presents and put them under our Christmas tree in the restaurant in the month before the event,” she said.

“Then we sort all those presents into age groups, and we give them out on the day, which brings massive smiles to the faces of the parents and the children.”

Other businesses and organisations have often asked the couple for advice about hosting their own Christmas Eve meal.

“If we have any advice for any other businesses, it’s to do what they can within their means,” she said.

“It’s very understandable that not every local business owner in all the different industries are going to be able to afford to put something like this on, as it’s a pretty decent financial investment.

“But in whatever way they can, no matter how small or large, we encourage everyone in our situation to try and give back at Christmastime, because there’s so many people that just aren’t in the fortunate position we are.

“We’re very grateful that every year we have no problem giving our kids presents or going on a holiday, but we know that that’s not realistic for a lot of people, so every little bit helps.”

She said anyone part of a charity organisation that had people they believed could benefit from the breakfast were welcome to make contact.

“We will, over the next month [November], be going through that process of getting everyone booked in and sending out the invite, so it would be a great time for anyone to reach out if they had families they would like to send,” she said.

Ambiance Ristorante is located at 4/63-67 Princes Hwy, Unanderra.