How One Woman's Restaurant Helps Feed a City’s Hungry
Public Greens’ Chicken Pozole, with pork shoulder, chillies, hominy, and a tostada. Photo: Public Greens.
Martha Hoover bucked the norm to build her Patachou restaurant empire in and around Indianapolis. She’s now taking a similar approach to feeding the city’s underprivileged children with her newest restaurant, Public Greens.
“We always felt that it’s important to have a sincere and authentic connection with the community,” said Hoover, who opened the doors to Public Greens, Patachou Inc.’s 10th restaurant, last December. “Let’s face it, the community supported us from day one. We want to do as much for it as we can.”
Photo: Public Greens.
Billed as “an urban kitchen with a mission,” Public Greens stands as the centerpiece of Hoover’s holistic, philanthropic model for giving back to the community. Staying true to her entrepreneurial spirit, the restaurant also has more unique twists to it than the Monon Trail greenway it sits at the head of.
The 1,600-square-foot restaurant occupies a renovated city building, a former eyesore in in the Broad Ripple neighborhood that sat abandoned for years. Taking up a city block, the property, leased from the city, includes a quarter-acre working micro-farm — manned by a full-time farmer — that will provide the restaurant with fresh vegetables.
All of the restaurant’s profits will go to the Patachou Foundation, which provides nutritious food to thousands of kids who suffer from food insecurity: their families don’t have access to quality food or, in many cases, don’t know when they’ll be eating their next meal.
“We thought our giving to the community was very scattershot and we wanted to narrow our scope,” Hoover said of the foundation she started in 2013. “We wanted the money we donated to have a bigger impact. We wanted to get away from writing checks. That’s such an old model.”
Public Greens’ humanely raised proteins and locally sourced greens help take the cafeteria concept to a new level. Photo: Public Greens
Public Greens is set up like a cafeteria to openly showcase “approachable food” that’s made from the fresh vegetables, humanely raised proteins, and dairy products Hoover has sourced from the independent regional suppliers she forged relationships with when she started the first Café Patachou in 1989.
“We do almost no business with broad-line suppliers,” she said, with more than a little pride.
Hoover also hopes the concept will serve as an aspirational model for all of the school, hospital and corporate cafeterias that never quite make it past the lower rungs of the culinary ladder.
“In my mind, cafeterias are basically irrelevant, not because of the mode of service but because most people don’t like the quality of the food,” she said. “It’s the lowest common denominator: a meat and two sides. Quite honestly, I thought the cafeteria concept could be so much better.”
Farmer Joe Huff cultivates the micro-farm for spring peas. Photo: Public Greens
Many of Public Greens’ vegetables – including kale, beets, carrots, radishes, and spinach — will come from the micro-farm. Following a nationwide search for a farmer, Hoover landed Joe Huff, who had worked at an Indiana farm and had volunteered at Growing Places Indy, a not-for-profit that cultivates urban micro-farms, including the one at Public Greens.
The micro-farm, which stretches nearly the full length block, is in full public view. While “farmer” might top Huff’s resume, he’ll be wearing multiple hats: explaining to curious passerby exactly what he’s doing, participating in the community and outreach events, helping with the foundation’s ongoing educational programs, working with the farm’s beekeeper, and consulting with Public Greens’ executive chef Tyler Herald.
That role is especially important since Herald, who also serves as executive chef of Patachou Inc.’s Napolese pizzerias, will be changing about 80 percent of the menu each week. “He’s really loving the idea of having such a free reign,” Hoover said of Herald. “He’s done an insane job. I’m so proud of the menu. It’s crisp and fresh, and the way you should eat.”
The menu highlights plenty of vegetarian and vegan options, as well as protein-based entrees. Prices for greens, grains and veggie sides, and “snacks,” such as short rib sliders, falafel, chicken tenders, and fried potatoes, are based on the number ordered: $6 for one, $10 for two and $12 for three. Fish, beef and chicken entrées range from about $6 to $12.
Public Greens chef Tyler Herald builds a vegan banh mi. A good portion of Public Greens’ menu focuses on vegetarian and vegan dishes. Photo: Public Greens
Many of Patachou Inc.’s employees volunteer their time to cook and deliver meals — about 7,500 so far — for the foundation. During the school year, the foundation partners with the Chase Nearside Legacy Center, which provides fitness, education, nutrition, and other services to the community and public schools. The Monday after the school year ends, the foundation starts cooking for Indy Parks and Recreation summer programs.
“We make meals for children using the same ingredients we serve to my customers and my family. We’re not dumbing anything down,” Hoover said. “We also have an educational component to teach kids about food, without being preachy. The goal is that, when given a choice between quality food and junk food, children will choose the quality food.”
That goal is an extension of the philosophy Hoover started with. After a career as a lawyer, pregnant with her third child (although she didn’t know it at the time), and no restaurant experience, she decided to open a restaurant to serve the same type of whole, nutritious food she fed her family. Many doubted the concept, a novelty in Indianapolis at that time, could survive.
Few were more skeptical than the region’s large food suppliers. Many had never worked with a female restaurateur, Hoover said, and didn’t understand and carry the ingredients for the type of food she wanted to serve. As an alternative, Hoover turned to the region’s independent growers and suppliers. Without Patachou Inc.’s ongoing business, many would not be around today.
Patachou Inc.’s Martha Hoover’s support of independent food suppliers helped many of them to thrive. Photo: Patachou Inc.
“If Martha was never here there would be a whole different farming scene, from vegetable growers to meat providers to cheese makers,” said Tyler Henderson, farm manager at Growing Places Indy. “Our healthy, profitable network of farms would not exist without her.”
Nor would many of the new restaurants serving high-quality food that have helped transform Indianapolis’ culinary scene during the last few years. “Most people would still be eating at chains,” Henderson added. “We would have lost the influence she’s had with her restaurants and the philanthropic work of her foundation.”
Whatever Hoover’s next move, chances are it will again prove that simple philosophies and community spirit can have a lasting impact.
“The last thing I want to do is send children to bed hungry and have them wake up hungry,” she said. “If that’s something my company can help with, then it’s the least I can do.”
Editor’s Note: Martha Hoover will be appearing March 29 at the Cherry Bombe Jubilee, a conference about women, food, and inspiration. Yahoo Food is a sponsor of Jubilee, so check back on Monday for conference coverage.
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