A Raw Business Blog
Wednesday, May 7th, 2008 at 2:51 pm
<–me being smoothie-girl at the All Things Organic Expo helping out my Superfood Snacks friends.
I have, once again, a plethora of things to share with you! Here’s the run down of what I’ve been up to and what I’ve been observing in the past 2 weeks in Chicago Raw Food-Land (I’ll save some for later though so this post won’t be too long) :
Last Sunday, the Chicago Young and Raw Group had a meetup brunch at The Balanced Kitchen, a relatively new organic, vegan, local-foods, gluten free, green restaurant in Chicago. They’re not a raw vegan food restaurant per se, but I’d say they can definitely hang with the best of them. (Currently, they’re only doing raw for special events.) We were served 6 course meal and treated our taste buds to some amazing new flavors. One friend in our group even said that the food there was better than a meal him and his girlfriend had a Charlie Trotter’s (a VERY VERY VERY expensive restaurant in Chicago that will serve a raw food course upon request). The interesting thing is that none of the chefs there are “Raw Food Chefs”– they are pretty much self-taught. In a way, I think this is a lot better because it’s not the same old stuff–raw hamburgers, raw tacos, raw pizza, etc. They are creating completely new flavor combinations (not that other raw food restaurants aren’t though) using the chef training they have, as well as whatever they’re learning from raw recipe books or websites. All in all, I was really impressed. We left feeling quite good, and definitely not stuffed. It was kind of like going to a raw food tapas restaurant–nibbles and tastes here and there, really savoring the flavors and the company!
There were a couple of new businesses that presented to us before and after we ate at the Balanced Kitchen that I really wanted to mention. Why not? I feel we should all support each other–especially new and upcoming green/raw/organic businesses ;) It’s always so thrilling to hear entrepreneurs tell the story of their product/service and business vision/unfolding with pride. I think back to my visions and how (especially lately) they have been unfolding and changing and getting tweaked here and there and all over the place. Now I think I’m going to be going into the online e-commerce business. What a complete 180 from a opening up a smoothie/juice bar! But I digress…the first business is my friend Jason’s. He’s making organic, vegan, gluten-free raw desserts like cheesecakes and pies and he just got into a few Whole Foods in the Chicagoland area. His company’s called Raw Creations. How exciting. I can’t express just how wonderful his desserts are. He’s always coming up with new things too. After brunch, we were treated to a cacao-lavender pie and it was just amazing. Check his website out here if you’d like to learn more or if you’re near the Whole Foods in Wheaton or Willowbrook. Here’s an awesome video of him talking about his product with “190 North” too. Check it out!
Update: I did an audio interview with Jason in December of 08. Listen to it here.
A “decadent raw vegan organic chocolate and catering” business called Cru Cacao was also in the house that Sunday. Cru Cacao was started by couple Dereme and Blazej only back in December (wow) and they were there presenting their amazing chocolate truffles to us. They had about 8 different flavors with exotic ingredients and flavorings such as mango dust, rose water, saffron, clear agave nectar, and gold flakes (not all in the same truffle). They run about $4 each and will be available at Whole Foods soon. These are what you’d give your honey or mom when they’ve been real good. We each got to sample one. Below is a pic:
Another quick note (EXCITING): I just got an update last week from Emily, the person who keeps up the Raw Food Restaurant Guide Blog and List, and 17 new raw vegan restaurants have opened up since mid-February. What exciting news. And that means more places for us to eat! Lol. But a real important note here, especially for those not in the city of Chicago: please take a look at her list. If you know of someplace (either raw vegan, or organic and very raw friendly) that should be on this list, PLEASE e-mail Emily and let her know. It will take two minutes. I know she will thank you on her site for the tips too! Thanks to you from all of us raw fooders too :)
MUCH appreciation for your readership and support,
~Lenette
The basis of your life is absolute freedom, the goal is joy, and the result of that perfect combination is motion forward, or growth. Your goal is to find objects of attention that let your cork raise. — Abraham
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