Customers’ special dietary needs are causing some chefs to shake their heads in bewilderment these days, while others are meeting the issue head on.
When Chef Brian Doyle opened Café Avalaun in Warrensville Heights, his goal was to design a restaurant menu that could adapt to food allergy restrictions.
“We had been dealing with family dietary needs for so long, I thought I could do a restaurant menu that could deal with multiple allergies,” he said. “It all started with my family. My oldest son is 20 years old and he has autism. We started him on a special diet and saw numerous benefits both cognitively and behaviorally. We also think it made him feel better, although we are not sure. He is nonverbal.”
“Five years ago, my wife experienced health problems and was bedridden for six months with problems related to an inflammation. A friend of mine recommended the Paleo Diet. We both started on the diet with specific modifications to do with inflammation and saw dramatic results,” he noted. “We both lost weight, slept better and our moods were enhanced. I thought, ‘I have got to make this a part of my life.’ But that’s hard to do for a chef.”
Doyle said he and his family were already advocates of natural foods and buying local. He believes a lot of food allergies are caused by environmental issues and things like antibiotics in our food. “We are in a perfect storm of things causing these issues,” Doyle said. “We are experiencing more gut permeability and digestive issues. Micro particles from chemicals in our food are getting into our bloodstream and our bodies are reacting. Our immune systems are reacting. “
Doyle’s Café Avalaun menu is gluten-free and features a fun crepe menu, great coffee and daily bakery. All menu items can be made vegetarian. Crepes can be made blonde, buckwheat, dairy-free coconut or dairy-free buckwheat.
“Crepes are our biggest seller because they make up 80 percent of our menu,” Doyle explained. “The Frenchie Fru Fru is the most popular. I love saying that and I love watching guys cringe when they order it. It is roasted chicken with non-dairy and nut-free pesto, Brie, spinach and mushrooms. It is just an excellent combo.” The second most popular item is the Philly Cheesecrepe, Doyle said. It is made with braised, local grass-fed beef, sautéed onions, mushrooms, mozzarella cheese and garlic aioli.
Café Avalaun also offers full-service catering. “We do a lot of weddings with special dietary needs. Other caterers might think that they can’t do this. For us, that is business as usual,” Doyle noted. “We catered a wedding where the bride had celiac issues and we created an entire menu that was gluten-free. No one in attendance at the wedding really noticed.”
Recently, Doyle began offering cooking classes at Café Avalaun. He said the goal of his classes is to build community through great food experiences. But he focuses on modern healthful food preparations, using organic products. Doyle is a graduate of the Institute for Integrative Nutrition and a member of the AIHM Academy of Integrative Medicine. He teaches his students to accommodate special dietary needs while still providing a high level of quality taste.
“The classes are amazing. This is something I have wanted to do for so long. They are selling out like crazy,” he said. “It’s great to react with folks dealing with their own personal battles.”
“I have goals for the future. I want to bring in other chefs, to do a special dinner or to teach a class. And, that is more about outreach and understanding,” Doyle explained. “Cooking for special diets is centered on a lack of knowledge, which creates fear. This issue is going to get worse before it gets better. Restaurants need to learn to respond and to be prepared. The restaurant business is hard. Trying to do a special menu is even harder. My customers sharing their experiences with me and thanking me for doing this is what keeps me going.”
Terry Thomsen, owner of Frickaccio’s pizza bagels located at the West Side Market, recently embarked on another business venture called Feel Good Dough.
“Feel Good Dough is my way to help people by offering an alternative to what is out there,” she said. “I want to teach people that you can eat wheat and not have dietary issues like bloating. This dough is clean down to the yeast, meaning there are no preservatives or pesticides used. We ship in the yeast from Germany to make this happen. It is vegan and kosher and certified organic.”
“I think that dough should be a staple in a person’s diet, either with good wheat or with grain-free. Feel good again,” Thomsen said. “I have found that people who are in transitional eating habits are looking for this alternative. It gets them involved in the production of their own food. They can still get their protein and fiber. Plus, my dough is able to be used for multiple applications.”
Thomsen said the dough can be stored in the refrigerator for five days, so each day it can be used to make something different. It can be baked, fried and grilled, and can be stored in the freezer for up to six months.
“People who have celiac issues, or have been diagnosed with wheat intolerance should not eat it. So, for those people, we offer cauliflower dough, which is grain-free. Or we have gluten-free dough, which is perfect for people who have wheat allergies,” Thomsen added.
Feel Good Dough is available at Heinen’s, Mustard Seed Market, Rego’s, Whole Foods Market, Door to Door Organics, Acme, Fisher’s, Zagara’s and at Frickaccio’s at the West Side Market. It will be available at Kroger in the fall, Thomsen added.
Many desserts are loaded with rich ingredients like butter and heavy cream. Jen and Jon Regan, owners of Poison Berry Bakery on Larchmere Blvd., are ensuring that their lactose-intolerant and vegan customers can still enjoy a sweet treat.
The Regans are vegans themselves, by choice. “I went vegetarian in high school, since a lot of my friends were vegetarian. At the end of my freshman year in college, I started to look into animal rights a lot and that led me to veganism,” Jon Regan explained.
“I was vegetarian on and off through high school and my first two years of college, when I met Jon, who was already vegan. Through him, I started to research how animals are treated, especially in food production,” Jen Regan added.
“We started baking out of our house over six years ago,” she said. “Even just six short years ago, there was a lot more negative connotation around the word vegan. People thought that vegan food couldn’t be good and that it was ‘poison.’ We wanted to show doubters that vegan food is delicious and not poison at all.” So, the Regans named their business Poison Berry Bakery. “That, and the fact that we are way too sarcastic for our own good,” Jen added.
She said that donuts and muffins seem to be the big hit at their newly opened brick-and-mortar bakery. “We pride ourselves on having a highly varied menu. There’s something for everyone,” she said. “Vegan ingredients do make for a healthier product than say, eating products with cholesterol-filled cow’s milk and eggs. But don’t expect to find diet foods here. Globs of frosting, sprinkles and chocolate chips prevail in these treats. Poison Berry Bakery is designed to be the occasional indulgence, not a meal replacement.”
“Businesses are definitely catering more and more to customers with special dietary needs,” Jen Regan said. “We see that as we are being contacted by already established businesses that are beginning to realize that they need vegan offerings in order to succeed. With so much information readily available, we are definitely seeing an increasing need for special dietary items. It might not be based solely on what an individual can or cannot eat, but also based on people thinking about what they are putting into their bodies and where it came from.”
In addition to the shop at 12210 Larchmere Blvd., Poison Berry Bakery products can be found at Six Shooter Coffee on Waterloo Rd., Vera’s Bakery Stand at the West Side Market, and at Nature’s Oasis in Lakewood.
[Written by Cynthia Schuster Eakin]
Warrensville Heights, OH 44128
Cleveland, OH 44113
Cleveland, OH 44120