A Mental Health Crisis Led Restaurateur Nedal Ahmad to Start a Nonprofit to Help Others

In 2010, Nedal Ahmad, Otto Othman, and Nizar Ahmad opened a fast-casual restaurant on Bird Road in Miami. Pincho Factory (now Pincho) sold pinchos (skewers) and burgers with a Miami twist.

The restaurant went on to win the South Beach Wine & Food Festival's Burger Bash and grew to almost a dozen locations thanks to an ever-growing local fan base. In 2018, at the height of the restaurant's success, Nedal stepped down from Pincho to pursue other endeavors; he retained one Pincho franchise and decided to launch a Muslim version of Elf on the Shelf called Eid with Saeed.

Then, the pandemic hit.

Nedal's Pincho franchise in Doral heavily relied on commuter traffic, forcing his restaurant to shutter. The factory producing his Eid with Saeeds was in Wuhan, China, and the order was canceled. "I get a kick out of how crazy a life story can be. The losses were piling up, and all of a sudden, we're essentially broke. A few years later, my wife and I are splitting up, and that started a downward spiral," Nedal tells New Times. Still a partner at Crackers restaurant in Miami Springs, Nedal also gave that up to get his life in order. "I gave up at Crackers. I wasn't able to keep going on the project," he confides.

While at the height of his success at Pincho, he went into therapy to learn the tools needed to become a better father. "There was a disconnect because people were confused because I was always with my kids, but I just felt like a terrible father. Therapy helped me be a better father." Feeling overwhelmed, Nedal decided to seek therapy again.

The therapy, combined with a sound support system of friends and family, started working. "I joined a kickball league, and I've built a circle of friends that have become my family," he adds.

Nedal believed in the help he received and started answering questions from friends. "I started recommending things to friends, and I found I was having an impact without even trying. One night the idea just came to me that I had to help people."

Nedal founded a nonprofit to help people on their mental health journeys. Heal For Us offers referral services, mental health research, and resources for people who don't have the means to pay for mental health services or don't know where to start in finding a provider. "Right now, I operate as a referral service," he says. "The problem a lot of people face is that they don't know where to start. People can call me. We'll have a conversation, and I'll send them different modalities."

Nedal is also helping people in their mental health journey by providing them with six-month mental health "scholarships" to pay for therapy. To help fund Heal For Us, Nedal is hosting a fundraiser at Doral Yard on Thursday, May 18, in support of Mental Health Awareness Month.

Heal Fest 2023 is a night of poetry and music featuring local musicians covering some of the world's best artists who struggled with mental health issues. The music of Amy Winehouse, Whitney Houston, Mac Miller, Kury Cobain, and Prince will be performed by Vix, Joshua Mitchell, Trevon DeVitto (Giftrap Tre), Christopher Luv, and Dria. In all, 30 musicians are scheduled to perform, and guests can eat and drink at Doral Yard's restaurants and bars and receive a gift card to try Diced, a new bowl concept.

Nedal says that while therapy helped him and others, there is still a stigma about mental health issues that he would like to end once and for all. "We all carry things around. I liken it to having a heavy backpack all day and finally getting to put it down for a minute." Nedal adds that therapy doesn't necessarily have to look like the traditional kind. "There's art therapy, group therapy, talk therapy. It's like having a best friend that can't share your information."

And if the world has got you feeling overwhelmed, Nedal has a bit of advice. "When it comes to feeling depressed, we tend to want to hide. Do the opposite. Seek out someone and talk about it. People underestimate how much better things feel when you share them. Find someone, somewhere — preferably a mental health professional, but at least a family member or friend. When you go down that spiral, that's when the trouble really starts."

Heal Fest 2023. 7 p.m. Thursday, May 18, at the Doral Yard, 8455 NW 53rd St., Doral; 786-843-5106; thedoralyard.com. Tickets cost $35 to $60 via eventbrite.com.