| Place a Classified | Subscribe today | July 10, 2009 |
|
|
|
|||||||||
| |||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
|
A home-cooked meal
joconnell@journalnet.com
POCATELLO -- As a dietary counselor for LA Weight Loss, Melissa Wood-Torres preached the art of making healthy meals without sacrificing taste. She was a caterer on the side, hired to prepare those good but healthy meals on a daily basis for many of her LA Weight Loss customers. For the past two months, that philosophy has guided menu choices at her own restaurant, Out to Lunch, located in Station Square on Main Street in Old Town.
Her soft tacos are a customer favorite, though she substitutes low-fat ground turkey for beef, and whole grain breads are a staple. Though not everything she's served would necessarily meet the strict parameters of LA Weight Loss, it's all made from scratch with fresh and natural ingredients. "I had a child, and I realized you can't feed your child Taco Bell for every meal," Wood-Torres said.
She worked as a dietary counselor for five years before leaving the job in 2006 to be with her children. Her oldest child, Ayriss, is now 9. Treyl is 7, and Beckam is 1 1/2. Starting the restaurant afforded Wood-Torres the opportunity to work again outside of the home and to tap into her creative side.
Her restaurant hours are a bit unusual -- 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. -- but they fit well into her personal schedule and also enable her to benefit from the Old Town lunch rush. She's been helped greatly in her efforts to run her own business by her family. Both her sister, Melody Singer, and her mother-in-law, Sue Hall, donate labor at the restaurant.
Hall, who had never previously worked in customer service, does much of the baking and prepares homemade soups. Hall has found the job to be great fun. "I made the comment to my husband that I wish it was as fun to come in where I get paid as it is to come in here," Hall said.
Wood-Torres went to school to become an EMT, but for the past decade, she's been enthralled with cooking. She reads cookbooks like novels and never tires of trying new ideas in the kitchen.
"I love experimenting. It's like having my own mad scientist lab," she said. She sells daily hot lunch specials for $4.95. But customers who enjoyed her Wednesday special -- grilled lemon chicken with rice pilaf -- are likely in for a long wait if they hope to sample it again. Her lunch specials change every day based on whatever she dreams up at the time. Her customers also offer suggestions about what to serve. And on Thursdays, she lets customers choose the soup of the day.
She also offers daily specials for Pocatello High School students -- a deli sandwich, chips and a drink for $3.50. Business has been good in the first two months at Out to Lunch, and she's confident there's enough demand to support another restaurant, given the fact that 1,600 people work in Old Town.
She's more than willing to tweak her business model if necessary, or even to repeat her lunch specials on a weekly basis for the sake of predictability. To find out what customers want, she has a survey asking them about portion sizes, cost, menu prices, recipe suggestions, etc. Wood-Torres also continues to cater events and notes that her catering customers are entitled to free use of the tables in the building's dining area. Article RatingReader CommentsSubmit a CommentCommenting RulesWe encourage your feedback and dialog. All comments are subject to deletion by our Web staff.
|
|
Comment
Rate
Report a Comment
