Having recently celebrated their one-year anniversary, owners Jackie Gaistman, 25, and Jeanette Gaistman, 23, said they want people to know that healthy food doesn’t have to be boring.
The disease affects everyone differently, with some living mostly symptom-free with occasional flares and others who struggle with debilitating symptoms. Lifestyle changes, like eliminating foods containing lactose, gluten and sugar, can help manage it.
After Jeanette’s Crohn’s diagnosis, the entire family decided to get more serious about the food they were consuming together.
“It was really my family that got me through everything because they were the ones that pushed me to follow the strict diet, which I hated,” Jeanette recalled.
It was innate for me to do anything that I could to remove some pain for her or make it easier for her,” Jackie said.
“We knew exactly what I was putting into my body,” Jeanette said.
The idea of going to culinary school and opening a restaurant seemed like just the opportunity.
“Creating this and sharing this with the world was a passion project that I wanted to do eventually.
Most of the time, people are like, ‘Oh, this is so bland, there’s not a lot of flavor.’ So we’re making it sexy in order to push the boundaries.
While Jeanette’s initial involvement in the restaurant was minimal, when COVID hit shortly after the restaurant opened, she began working more closely with her sister to design the feel of the restaurant.
“But we didn’t really even have time to feel bad for ourselves, which made it better because if we wanted to survive this, we needed to think on our toes.
Jeanette’s background in hospitality marketing means that every aspect of the restaurant — from food and recipes to branding and marketing — is done in-house, as a family.
After surviving their first year through a global pandemic, the sisters threw a party in mid-April to celebrate their anniversary.