Matthew Guelke and Mark Lewis decided to ditch the tech world to try to create a healthy form of fast food last decade. They started with a single restaurant in the Marina in December of 2005.
Today, their plans are going well. Two new central locations for The Plant Cafe Organic are opening up soon, which will bring their total number of restaurants to eight.
"The idea is to expand the access for everybody to eat this way easily," Guelke tells us.
The duo's eatery was originally called Lettus, but they changed the name to The Plant Café Organic after about a year and a half, because a restaurant group called Lettuce Entertain You out of Chicago got testy about the name.
They added a location on the Embarcadero on Pier 3 in 2009 after Piers 1 1/2, 3 and 5 were redeveloped, and now they also have locations at 101 California in the FiDi, in the Marina and Mill Valley, and a franchise operation at SFO.
The Plant at Pier 3. Photo: The Plant
The current location of The Plant Cafe Organic in the FiDi has been a hit, the owners tell us, so they are planning to open another just three blocks away at 250 Montgomery St. sometime in September. This, along with a new Dogpatch location at 2335 Third St. opening around the end of June will mark six locations for the growing local chain.
"In the FiDi, people don’t have a lot of time for lunch, so generally they won’t walk too far," Guelke said. And lines are usually out the door. "We’ve heard people complain it’s just too busy."
Look for a menu revamp soon. "The core 70 percent of our menu will stay the same, but we’ll be doing a little bit of an update to breathe new life into the menu for people," Guelke said. Some favorites that will stay include the award-winning vegetarian "burger" made with beets, bulgur wheat, cashews and lentils; the miso quinoa bowl; and a kale salad. Prices will be the same as at 101 California St.
The Plant's vegetarian "burger." Photo: Lior Zilberstein
The "organic" in the name and on the menu means everything served is organic, no exceptions: "Restaurants will tell you 'organic whenever possible,'" Guelke said, "but you really don’t know what’s what." The Plant offers vegan and vegetarian dishes as well as poultry and fish because, Guelke said, if consumers are going to eat meat, "they should have the best, most humanely treated and sustainable meats available to them.” However, they draw the line at red meat. "We’ve considered grass fed lamb and beef," he said, "but even those meats have a high carbon footprint.”
Guelke and Lewis started The Plant after someone close to Guelke passed away and he subsequently attended a health retreat where he met a lot of people who were quite ill and were getting better though a healthy diet with no preservatives or GMOs. He found it was "surprisingly difficult" to adhere to that diet, because many restaurants still use non-organic dairy, among other ingredients. Everything’s got to be 100 percent organic," Guelke said. "There’s no middle ground.”
