CLEVELAND, Ohio -- SomethinGood, a new local health and wellness brand, is all about using mindfulness-based practices to reduce stress in all aspects of life.
One of those aspects -- dining -- is the focal point of SomethinGood To Eat, a new restaurant set to soft-open on Nov. 11 at 12210 Larchmere Boulevard. The owner, Andrew Taylor-Shaut, developed the brand and restaurant as a healthy plant-based option for clean eating.
Taylor-Shaut, a mindfulness-based stress reduction teacher and researcher, said that the coronavirus pandemic has presented challenges to opening SomethinGood To Eat, but that it has also affirmed the goal of the eatery.
“When this pandemic hit, it opened up an opportunity for me to really focus on what people need at this time. I feel that stress is at its all-time highest in our society and culture,” Taylor-Shaut said. “I noticed one of the pinnacle foundations to health and wellness is making sure people can eat and be fulfilled so they then have the energy and capacity to work through whatever stresses their day-to-day environment provides for them.”
That’s where SomethinGood To Eat comes in. The restaurant serves plant-based versions of fast-food favorites, with the menu including “Good Nuggets” (a chickpea-based substitute for chicken nuggets), “Royal Burgers” (black bean burgers), “Good Burgers” (lentil burgers) and other items like barbecue jackfruit sandwiches, sweet potato fries and more.
On the beverage menu, SomethinGood To Eat offers smoothshakes -- a cross between smoothies and milkshakes, using house-made oat milk.
Taylor-Shaut developed the menu after having difficulty finding plant-based, vegan and vegetarian options while traveling around the country. The Shaker Heights native moved back home in 2017, with the idea of opening a plant-based eatery on the East Side of Cleveland, with an accessible fast-food styled menu.
“I was mostly making everything that will be on the menu at home, every day, for the last few years,” Taylor-Shaut said. “It got to a point where it seemed like the right direction to maybe make this a public offering, because many people were, like myself, struggling to find easy access to healthy options whether they were plant-based or omnivorous.”
The GOOD Meal: a burger, shake and side. (Photo courtesy Andrew Taylor-Shaut)
The restaurant will focus on whole food options, eliminating overly processed items standard to most fast-food spots.
“Most fast food companies are offering plant-based options, but they’re highly processed through ‘Beyond Meat’ or ‘Impossible Meat’ or other processed foods,” Taylor-Shaut said. “Ours is from whole foods rather than created in a lab.”
SomethinGood To Eat will help fill a void in Cleveland’s Larchmere neighborhood, taking over the former space of Baba Yaga’s Greenhouse Cafe -- a vegan hotspot that closed in May due to financial issues related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
SomethinGood To Eat is Taylor-Shaut’s first arm of the SomethinGood brand, and he plans to incorporate more aspects like a bodega that sells local vendors' products, including food, tea, cosmetics, books and music.
Other arms of SomethinGood include “SomethinGood To Hear,” “SomethinGood To Read” and “SomethinGood To Drink,” Taylor-Shaut said. They all aim to incorporate mindfulness into peoples' everyday lives.
“As we all are well-aware, this year has provoked a lot of stress from all angles and all situations. Maybe sitting down on a cushion or a chair to listen to your thoughts or focus on breathing might not be peoples' first choice,” he said. “This is about approaching wherever someone might be, who is overwhelmed with stress, and approaching that suffering with different tools to assist and support people on that journey toward health and wellness.”
The restaurant will be open after Nov.11 from noon to 2 p.m. and 5 to 8 p.m. Wednesdays through Sundays, with a breakfast menu and a late-night food menu. The restaurant will celebrate a grand opening on Jan. 1, 2021.
SomethinGood to Eat will launch an IndieGogo crowdfunding campaign this fall.
You can find more information about the restaurant and the brand at somethingood.co.