[SpotOn Series] Simplicity Meets Flavor With Britni DeLeon and Kasia Bednarz, Co-founders of FARE
Chad Franzen 12:16
How many ideas make it compared to ones that never see the menu?
Kasia Bednarz 12:22
It’s a good question. There’s definitely some misses and we’re both pretty honest and transparent about that. We’re always like, oh, this one didn’t quite hit how we thought it was going to. I would say every season we maybe make 15 new what we call toppers, which are like composed veggie sides that go on top of the bowls and the plates about 15. And then we narrow it down to like seven core items that stay on the menu.
And our team is involved also. So they get to taste test some of these items and we get some feedback there. And of course every season you know there’s some favorites and we try to bring those back into the rotation in future seasons. And yeah, it’s been really fun. It’s definitely our favorite part of the business, working together on the menu and then seeing just the joy that it brings to people’s faces.
And everyone really loves the seasonal menu change and they get excited and hyped up about it. You know, both internally and the customers. And yeah, we love doing the menu.
Chad Franzen 13:14
How long had you been in that first location before you decided it was time to grow?
Britni DeLeon 13:22
We were there about a year and then we opened. We had the opportunity to open a second location at Time Out Market, which was another food hall in the Fulton Market neighborhood of Chicago. So we opened there in November 2019, and then we all know what happened just a few months later and Covid struck. I mean, we were in an interesting position because even with that other location open, we had already raised money to open a third, which would have been our first standalone storefront. So not in a food hall.
It was going to be like our flagship, which is actually, ironically, just a couple doors down from where our flagship location is now, which we opened post-Covid. So it was — yeah, it was an interesting time. Things felt like they were moving really quickly and we were so busy at Wall Street Market, we were excited to bring it to a new part of the city, only had, you know, so many months to kind of test that out, which was a, you know, a different neighborhood and a different experience before everything kind of shut down.
Chad Franzen 14:20
What kind of new challenges did you know you’d already opened one. So you kind of knew what it was like to open one. But what kind of new challenges did expansion present to you? Obviously, Covid was a whole new, unexpected challenge. But, you know, just in terms of opening a new place, what kind of new challenges did that present?
Kasia Bednarz 14:38
Yeah, I think the neighborhood that we went into was a little bit more residential than where our first location was, which was in the central business district. And so the day parts shifted. And so instead of being extremely busy for this 1130 to 130 time period where we service, you know, 3 or 400 customers at Wall Street Market, we now had to figure out how to do breakfast on the weekends for brunch. And we were slinging egg sandwiches and dinner. And so I think what it really taught us is just being adaptable and really listening to the consumer and, you know, sticking to your core values.
But also what does the consumer want? How are we going to please these people? How are we going to serve them what they’re looking for? So I think that was a big challenge. But we were able to adapt and, you know, sold a lot of egg sandwiches on Saturday in a diner.
Britni DeLeon 15:23
It was like a diner. It was pretty fun.
Kasia Bednarz 15:24
And then at that time, you know, two locations, we were able to split up still, you know, now we have more. So it’s definitely a very different experience. And just really learning that your team is critical in growth. And so if your team, you know, is not buying into it and if the culture isn’t there, it’s really hard to execute at the level that you want to. So I think that was a really instrumental time in learning that.
Chad Franzen 15:47
How would you describe FAREs culture in terms of how the team would see it?
Britni DeLeon 15:52
Yeah, we try to again involve them in every step of the process and really make the seasonality of the food and the excitement around these menu shifts a good time for everybody. So it’s something that is unique to the fast casual space because it’s already, you know, such a quick paced environment. And so switching a menu every 12 weeks is a big undertaking, and we really need them to be on board with that. So we try to involve them in that. And then also just to teach them along the way about the ingredients and how important it is to, again, use quality things, to not use a lot of them to minimize, to minimize processed things and everything that we do and what and why we make that choice.
And then they get to pass that on. And so I think that there’s a lot of pride in what the product that they’re putting out there. And so I’d say that keeping them close to the values of why we’re doing what we’re doing has been a big part of keeping the culture strong within.
Chad Franzen 16:54
Do you think the culture kind of translates to the customer? Like a customer can see what the culture is like in any restaurant, let alone FARE.
Kasia Bednarz 17:02
Yeah, one of our team members last week just told us that they got matching tattoos at one of the locations. And, you know, our customers are very repeats. So it’s the same people come in over and over again and they form relationships with them and they chit chat about their weekends and they talk about the new menu items, and you can feel the camaraderie and, you know, just the passion for what they’re doing when they interact with the customers.
Chad Franzen 17:24
I was looking at your website. It looks like you have one standalone restaurant, one that’s in a food hall and one that’s in a hospital. Do you have to take so those are all kinds of different types of locations. Do you have to take different approaches at each place?
Kasia Bednarz 17:38
Yeah, sure. So we have two food hall locations in downtown, one standalone and one in the hospital. And yes, definitely different approaches in terms of the menu. We’re not open for breakfast at all the locations and they’re different customers. You know, the hospital customer is a different customer than the business district customer and, you know, different levels of speed. Sometimes you need more interaction.
You need to, you know, spend more time with the guests versus like in our, you know, very busy locations where people just want to get in and out. So yes, that that way there is a difference. But the food and the culture and the hospitality that we provide is consistent everywhere.
Chad Franzen 18:15
How much of a challenge is it to, from a logistics standpoint, to kind of manage all the seasonal ingredients from local farms?
Britni DeLeon 18:24
Yeah, we work with great partners. So our purveyors who we order produce and our dry goods and things like that from it’s nice because it’s something that people are asking for more. They want more transparency in their food and where it’s coming from. And so we’re able to get a lot of that from these larger vendors. You know, the farm piece of it is tricky.
We wish it was a lot easier to work directly, but a lot of times size is an issue. Can we get the right quantity that we need? Is the product going to be consistent. And so yeah, working with some larger distributors who can kind of be that middleman between the two has been really key for us. And I think as we grow, those partnerships can blossom and grow and we hope to be able to do some more things like contract and grow, you know, certain ingredients that we use all the time to our spec that can be distributed all over to all of our stores.
Chad Franzen 19:22
Is it important to like, stay informed or up to date on trends in healthy eating and sustainability?
Britni DeLeon 19:29
For sure. Yeah, I think that we’re very much informed by what’s happening around us. We consider ourselves trendy, trendy people. And we’re always learning about new ingredients and why something is good for you. Or maybe it’s not anymore.
And that can be very confusing. And so it’s always kind of a balance between, you know, us being able to translate that to our customer in a way that feels really sturdy and solid, like we’ve made a commitment to not use seed oils as an example, ever in any of our restaurants. So we only use olive oil to roast with and in all our sauces and dressings, sometimes coconut oil or avocado oil. But never would you find a canola oil or sunflower oil or something like this that we just have enough research on to make the commitment to not do that. So I think it’s just choosing some of these things and looking at our menu as a whole and kind of our path for growth.
What are some upgrades that we’d like to make along the way that are going to make a really significant difference and matter to people? So it is a balance between, you know, what we find really trendy and we can geek out on health stuff and what kind of the masses are looking for and wanting to be on the forefront of those things, but also not like going too deep, too fast.
Kasia Bednarz 20:47
And the menu is very versatile. So we try to stay away from, you know, fads. But really, because the menu is so versatile, there’s so much that you can customize where we’re able to accommodate a lot of these, you know, diets that people may be experiencing at that time or what they feel is good for them. So, you know, as much as like, we’re not necessarily promoting that we’re keto or paleo or whatever it may be. I mean, the menu does accommodate a lot of these dietary restrictions, which really helps us.
Chad Franzen 21:13
Yeah. You guys are you’re you know, any type of dietary can really go there and eat there. How do you kind of make sure that the food is still delicious, even though maybe it doesn’t contain, you know, certain items that certain people won’t eat?
Britni DeLeon 21:28
How do we make it delicious? Yeah, the good ingredients? Yes, it all comes back to, really, the quality of the ingredients and using things that are in season. I mean, we do that for more than one reason. They taste better when you’re eating things that are growing during that time, when they’re not coming from overseas, and also, the nutrient density of those foods is greater when you’re eating them in the season that they’re growing in. So it’s going to make you feel better, and it’s going to taste better. It’s definitely, you know, win, win.density of those foods is greater
Chad Franzen 21:56
Why is it important to be transparent to your customers?
Kasia Bednarz 22:01
That’s always been really important to us. And that’s really why we started fair. You know, there were healthy places to eat, but we really didn’t trust what was in the food. And, you know, maybe you were having a salad, but who knows what was in that salad dressing. And so we just want to be a place where no matter what, you can go there and anything that you order, you know what’s in it.
And you trust that whatever we selected is good for you. It’s nourishing, it’s good for your body, and it’s actually what we say that it is. I mean, we eat there very often, our families eat there, and this is how we want to feed our people, and this is how we want to feed the community. And trust and transparency is important to us, and we want to give that to the community.
Chad Franzen 22:39
I think I saw that you’ve been featured in various Chicago media outlets, and you’ve been called a Chicago media darling. How important has that been in your growth and your success Britni?
Britni DeLeon 22:50
We’ve really been held by the community that we were in. I think that from day one, people were excited to see two women back there serving the food. And again, because we love that hospitality piece of it, we got to know, just like our team does now. We got to know a lot of those people who were coming in every, every day and every week. And so we kind of had that connection off the bat, and we really leaned on that to get us through some tough times like Covid and re-emerge with still a lot of brand loyalty, which was important to us.
And that was, you know, it’s been authentic and also strategic. We’ve taken them along for the ride on social media and kept in touch other ways with email marketing and in-store communications and things like that. So it’s any community that we’re in. And right now it’s mostly been the loop. And as we get ready for expansion, we will now be out in other neighborhoods and communities.
Like that’s going to be wildly important for us to be embraced, lean on them, gain their trust, and then and then those people become ambassadors for your brand. And so just saying staying close to the brand is how we’ve been able to do that.
Chad Franzen 24:01
Do you have anything coming up for the future? What’s some of your vision maybe for the future?
Kasia Bednarz 24:07
We have lots coming up for the immediate future.
Which is opening a lot of locations in Chicago. So we have nothing is quite signed, but we’re almost there. We have a location coming to Logan Square. We have another location coming to the loop, which is exciting. We’re also looking at a few other neighborhoods, and we also have some national expansion happening in early 2026 going to Charlotte, North Carolina.
So we’re really excited about that being our second market out of Chicago. So yeah, lots of things in the works.
Chad Franzen 24:40
What’s going to go into, you know, kind of going into a different state.
Kasia Bednarz 24:45
Again, that’s going to split us. So we’re lucky that there’s two of us, you know? But one of us will be able to travel and like we said before, it is just really having the team buy into what we’re doing and we allow the team to participate in what we call a profit share. And so we really also incentivize them. And we have operating partners.
And so our goal is to find an operating partner there that really takes on that market and helps it grow and is really like a true partner to us, not just, you know, an employee. So finding that person is going to be really, really, really critical to, you know, find someone that’s authentic to what we’re doing and, and someone that can help us, you know, really go to that next level there and someone that we trust. But it’ll be exciting exploring, you know, a totally different market. And yeah, in Charlotte there’s a lot of sunshine and a lot of need for healthy food.
Chad Franzen 25:33
I have one more question for you guys. But first, how can people find out more about FARE?
Britni DeLeon 25:39
Yeah, you can visit us at foodbyfare.com. And there you’ll find a list of all our locations, our philosophies and values on our food. A link to follow us on social media. Catering. Anything you.
Anything you’d want to know you can find there. And then, of course, you can visit us in-store in Chicago at any of our four locations.
Chad Franzen 25:59
So if you were to go to FARE as a customer, this may be challenging because you guys change your menu frequently, but what would you say is maybe like a go to item like this? This is my thing. When I go to FARE as a customer for each of you.
Kasia Bednarz 26:13
Right now, what I would pick for Fall vibes, we just launched a turkey sweet potato chili that served with a mini cornbread muffin that’s vegan and gluten free. Unintentionally, you would never even know and it’s so delicious. I think that’s what I would pick right now.
Britni DeLeon 26:28
Yeah, and I love to make a bowl. And because again, the season, it’s like all about hearty stuff. We’ve got some hearty things on the menu. I’d start with a base of kale, our lemony kale. I do our antipasto salad with like chickpeas and cucumbers.
Sun-dried tomatoes and some really good bold flavors in there. I do the squash, which is roasted butternut squash with agrodolce. It’s like a sweet and savory sauce, and it has toasted walnuts in it. And then I put a piece of salmon on top. And we just with this season launched a new dressing.
Our dressings are huge. Like we’re always sauces can be a mystery sometimes. Like what’s in there? Are there sugars, are there weird oils. And ours don’t have any of those things.
And we have a Greek yogurt ranch, which is just I mean, I could drink it, so that’s what I go for.
Chad Franzen 27:23
Nice. Very nice.
Kasia Bednarz 27:24
Brownie. We make some really great pastries. We like something sweet at the end of our meal. So we would have one of those.
Chad Franzen 27:30
Yeah. Perfect. I’m starving now. Hey, thanks so much, guys. Britni and Kasia, it’s been great to talk to you. Thanks for sharing your insights and your stories. Really appreciate it.
Britni DeLeon 27:48
Thank you for having us.
Chad Franzen 27:39
Thank you. So long, everybody.
Kasia Bednarz 27:40
Bye bye.
Outro 27:41
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