One Sandwich, Please, with a Clooney on the Side: George Visits Scottish Café to Help the Homeless

"You can help people out by buying a sandwich," says Clooney at the Social Bite Café in Edinburgh

Photo: Jeff Holmes/Getty

It’s not often that George Clooney suddenly drops into your local sandwich store for a quick bite to eat.

So it’s no surprise the Gravity star received a warm reception at the Social Bite Café in Edinburgh, Scotland this afternoon when he stopped by to help support the homeless community.

Fans braved the Scottish wintery chill from 7 a.m. to snatch a glimpse of Clooney, 54, at the café, which operates a “suspended’ coffee-and-food program where customers pay for a homeless person to have some hot drink or food.

Around a quarter of its workforce were also once homeless.

“It’s pretty amazing, and I’m looking forward to seeing it, I haven’t seen it up close yet,” Clooney told reporters outside the café, whose motto is “Good food for a good cause.”

“I like what they’re doing, I think it’s a very important cause. I think the idea that we can all participate in everyone’s difficulties is really important,” he said. “You can help people out by buying a sandwich.”

Café founder Josh Littlejohn, who invited Clooney to drop in for a sandwich, added, “For many of our team who until recently lived on the streets, this is a really amazing thing to look forward to.”

One café employee took to Twitter to share her excitement about getting to meet Clooney.

“So George Clooney is beautiful in real life!!!! Fab morning at work seeing him!!” she wrote.

Clooney is in the Scottish capital to promote the Not On Our Watch charity he founded with Matt Damon and Brad Pitt.

Tonight he will follow in the footsteps of President Clinton, Sir Richard Branson and Live Aid founder Sir Bob Geldof to deliver a keynote speech at the Scottish Business Awards in front of 2000 Scottish business leaders.

As befits his nice-guy image, Clooney reportedly left behind a $1,000 donation at the Social Bite Café and this afternoon shared a lunch with competition winner Heather McGowan, 32, at Edinburgh’s Tigerlily hotel.

As for his wife, Amal, the actor merely told reporters that she was “in England” – but that hardly tells the whole story.

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The leading human rights lawyer visited the offices of British Foreign Office minister Hugo Swire yesterday to discuss the deteriorating political situation in the Maldives, which has recently been put under martial law by its ruling military junta.

Amal is defending former Maldives president Mohamed Nasheed – described as “the Mandela of the Maldives” – who is currently serving a 13-year sentence deemed “illegal” by the United Nations, which has called for his immediate release.