NYC Turkish spot aids homeless
Ali Baba, a Turkish restaurant at 224 E 53rd St in New York City, has been sharing heat lamps, shelter, and weekly food donations with people experiencing homelessness for eight years, a social video that went viral on April 12 shows. (x.com). The post drew strong engagement, highlighting the restaurant’s ongoing community support rather than a one‑off effort. (x.com).
A Midtown Manhattan restaurant that serves kebabs by day has also been opening a heated entryway to people sleeping outside on freezing nights. (thetablet.org) Ali Baba Mediterranean & Turkish Cuisine is at 224 East 53rd Street, and owner Ali Riza Doğan told The Tablet he posts a sign inviting people indoors when temperatures plunge. The sheltered space is the restaurant’s vestibule, not the dining room or kitchen. (alibabany.com, thetablet.org) Doğan told The Tablet he has kept up the practice for years and also joins Wednesday food distributions, bringing lamb, chicken, and Mediterranean side dishes from his restaurant and other eateries. The article was published March 12, 2026, a month before the video spread widely online. (thetablet.org) The attention landed against a stubborn street-homelessness problem in New York City. The city’s 2025 Homeless Outreach Population Estimate counted 4,504 people experiencing unsheltered homelessness on the night of January 28, 2025, up 9 percent from 2024. (nyc.gov) That count is a one-night estimate of people sleeping in public places such as streets, parks, and subways, and New York City has run it annually since 2005. In 2025, subway homelessness rose by nearly 300 people and made up more than half of the total estimate. (nyc.gov, nyc.gov) Doğan tied his own outreach to a night in 1986, when he arrived from Ankara, Turkey, got lost in New Jersey three days later, and slept in a heated hallway after failing to find a pay phone. He told The Tablet he still remembers that night and puts up the overnight shelter sign when the cold turns dangerous. (thetablet.org) Ali Baba’s website lists the restaurant as a long-running Midtown business with a full Mediterranean and Turkish menu at the East 53rd Street address. The recent burst of attention did not introduce a new program so much as expose a routine the owner said has already been part of the restaurant for years. (alibabany.com, thetablet.org) The image that resonated online was simple: a neighborhood restaurant using its heat, lights, and front entry to get a few people through the night. In a city where thousands are still counted outdoors, that small patch of indoor space was enough to turn a local habit into a citywide story. (thetablet.org, nyc.gov)
