GOOD FOOD LYFE

Kitchen

LYFE KITCHEN CO-FOUNDER MIKE Donahue hates being asked about his former gig as McDonald’s chief communications officer — as if his current work is some form of atonement.

Vilifying those kinds of fast-food joints isn’t very productive, he says, because it’s the consumer who ultimately drives the market. That’s what created LYFE Kitchen.

Unlike other industries such as technology — Apple engineered devices we never knew we needed — restaurants take cues from the public.

“In the restaurant industry, I find that the consumer is far ahead of the industry,” Donahue says.

The health-conscious attitude is nothing new. Donahue commends the efforts of Dr. Kenneth Cooper to educate people about the dangers of being sedentary. The influx of healthy fast-food restaurants (such

Grass-fed burger

Un-fried buffalo chicken strips

• Chicken tossed in spicy buffalo sauce with farmhouse pickle slices

• 364 calories as the Cedars Woodfire Grill that opened on the Cooper Aerobics campus) indicates that “the issues have become so much bigger,” Donahue says.

Donahue saw a niche — and a challenge, to make sure the food actually tastes good. He enlisted executive chef Art Smith, a wellknown health-food guru who served as Oprah Winfrey’s personal chef for 10 years, along with executive chef Jeremy Bringardner, who came out of the same Johnson & Wales University culinary training program as Emeril Lagasse and Tyler Florence.

They spent the better part of a year creating and taste-testing dishes for the menu, which includes items such as quinoa bowls, kale salad and roasted Brussels sprouts. Then there are healthy versions of buffalo chicken strips, the grass-fed burger, and steak and potatoes. Everything includes nutritional info, and the menu denotes gluten-free, vegan and vegetarian items. The corn chowder — an underrated dish that most people don’t know to order — is actually vegan, made with cashew cream.

Like Modmarket, LYFE Kitchen also offers selections of wine on tap and local craft beers.

Donahue — who tries to avoid the “H” word (healthy) —has a name for these types of restaurants that, he says, don’t fall into the typical fast-food genre nor the fast-casual concept. They are ”lifesytle restaurants,” or LSR in insider real estate speak.

“It’s a new kind of service model,” he says.

LYFE Kitchen also has a location in Uptown and in Plano with at least 60 more restaurants coming across the country over the next three years.

“We wanted to make sure we had a national footprint, build out in our primary markets like Dallas,” Donahue says.

• 100-percent grass-fed beef, cheddar, romanie, tomato, red onion, pickles and Dijonnaise on an oatmeal bun

• 570 calories