— Maria Allen

I'm gonna give it to you in three steps. And the first one is we have a graduate, uh, whose name is Dawn Creamer Lucas. And Dawn did open a cafe about five years ago in southern New Jersey. It's called the Gentle Giant Cafe. And Chef Fran and Chef Demetra and myself visited last summer, I believe, and we had an absolutely wonderful time. And her food, I would describe it as plant-based comfort food. And she had a beautiful potato salad and a lovely pasta salad, and a big green salad, all kinds of wonderful things. She works very, very hard. And I believe that somewhere on the computer today, you will find, um, uh, her link and she says that you can, if you have any questions, to either DM her on Facebook or on Instagram at Gentle Giant Cafe, and she would be very happy to take any of your questions. So going back to the one through 1, 2, 3, we had a student not too long ago who had the very same idea. And what they did was they invited eight people to their home, and they made little cards with the name of each dish and had their friends rate each dish to see what was the most popular and was the how was the taste. And at the end of the evening, she compiled all of her data so that she knew that sliders were a great idea. She made a soup shooter and everyone said, yes, who doesn't love soup? She made a delicious plant-based dessert. I believe she made two desserts because I do find in vegan eateries that I do go to, people love to have a good solid plant-based dessert, and I think she made, uh, the udan noodles and she put them on a little, uh, Asian soup spoon. So you might wanna do a needs assessment, and if you haven't done your shindig assignment yet, it might be the perfect time to have a party. I would also look at the, probably the most important thing, and that is finances. How will you finance this? Would you need investors? Would you have a GoFundMe? What would be your means of constructing this business? And the other thing is location, location, location. I will say I know many Rouxbe grads and also other bakers and things like that in the field who start out doing farmer's markets so that they can develop a, a following and they can develop a reputation and those kinds of things that are very, very helpful. You might want to think about starting off doing some kind of, uh, catering, mini catering where you have maybe four or five clients that you deliver to each week. So I think it's really important to think about those kinds of things. I'll give you my personal note. When I go to a cafe, I always look for a vegan soup. That's all I really need. Or I will look for a cruda tea platter with ho I'll say, uh, who, who makes your hummus? Where's your hummus from? And if they name a company, I kind of, you know, smirk a little, or they say, um, oh, we make it ourselves. And then I might even get more specific and say, could I see a list of ingredients? Uh, people don't always like to go out and have a snack with me, but these are things that are important to me. But soup, uh, cru tape platter, uh, avocado sandwiches these days are very, very popular and maybe a dessert that's, uh, made on the outside, usually by a reputable vegan baker in Philadelphia. So you have a lot to think about, and I would definitely contact Dawn and definitely as this, uh, progress as you, as your progress moves on, let us know because, uh, here in Pennsylvania, we will drive within the three state area to go visit one of our students because we love seeing their good work. So that was a great, great question. Excited. Yeah, eating out is hard. It's very, very hard. I will say that you can find places always call in advance and that that sometimes is, um, very, very helpful.

This is the link to the Gentle Giant Cafe, owner, Dawn Creamer Lucas. She’s happy to answer any questions