The Campanile soup kitchen

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Campanile restaurant has always served as a kind of meeting room and hangout for a lot of screenwriters. With writers on strike, chef Mark Peel decided he wanted to give something back. So he’s started what he’s calling a “writer’s soup kitchen.”

Here’s how it works: Every Wednesday, there will be a fixed-price lunch menu that starts with a choice of two soups, followed by a choice of four entrees and capped by a couple of scoops of ice cream. The whole thing costs $18. Entrees will include things like braised beef with sauerkraut, grilled albacore, grilled chicken and a vegetarian choice of sauteed polenta with sheep’s milk cheese and glazed cauliflower.

Peel says the deal is offered only to card-carrying screenwriters, but then he had to ask around the office to find out whether screenwriters actually carried cards. The answer was unclear, but he allows that “we’re not going to be like the public library. We’re probably not going to get all that assiduous about checking cards. I’ve got a feeling nobody’s going to lie that much.”

Peel says the writers strike is hurting the entire community that depends on writers’ business —everybody from dry cleaners to restaurants. “We’re all hurting,” he says. “We’re not going to make any money on this. But I hope we’ll contribute to a sense of community, and that’s the whole point.”

Campanile, 624 S. La Brea Ave., Los Angeles, (323) 938-1447