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Having exceeded its budget for renovations, the Illegal Food team is looking to fans for help. The forthcoming Virginia-Highland restaurant, which started as a pop-up inside Joystick Gamebar, is holding a fundraiser and offering different levels of prizes.
"We signed the lease for the place and wanted to use our savings to fund the restaurant renovation, allowing us to not have to take out any loans," owner Steven Lingenfelter said in a prepared statement. "Though we still haven't yet had to do that, we used a lot of our resources to get our doors open and we're hoping our supporters can help us out to get us started."
Illegal Food is moving into the former Bar Meatball space at 1044 Greenwood Avenue NE. The restaurant hopes to open soon, but in the meantime is trying to raise $25,000. Prizes range from donations of $10 to $10,000. A few of the rewards, according to a release:
Want to put up your money to help Illegal Food open? The restaurant is accepting donations online.