Oprah Winfrey-Backed True Food Kitchen Aims to Cook Up Healthy Expansion

True Food Kitchen doesn't have the kind of menu that baby boomers grew up with, but it offers healthy food that millennials appear to expect and seek out. And that's behind the company's nationwide growth in the past decade and its plans to add about a dozen more restaurants in the next 15 months.

That dramatic shift in eating habits, along with backing from Oprah Winfrey, is driving an expansion for the restaurant chain in several U.S. retail centers, where diners can choose from fare such as an Unbeetable Beet Burger and Butternut Squash Pizza, and slake their thirst with a Citrus Skinny Margarita or a Pom Collins.

The Scottsdale, Arizona-based company has found success by offering healthy, and what it says is also tasty, cuisine based on the lifestyle principles of its co-founder, Dr. Andrew Weil. An integrative medicine proponent and best-selling author, Weil was often a featured guest on Winfrey’s TV talk show. Winfrey, the billionaire “live-your-best-life” guru and media executive, is an investor in the chain and sits on its board.

True Food Kitchen is growing fast. It recently announced it is opening a restaurant in the spring at The Shops at Riverside, an upscale mall in Hackensack, New Jersey, which will be chain’s first outlet in the Garden State. Next month, True Food Kitchen is set to open an eatery in New Orleans at The Julia at St. Charles, a mixed-use development in the warehouse district.

Founded in October 2008, True Food Kitchen now has 28 locations in 12 states, including Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Missouri, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, Texas and Virginia. But that number will increase with four openings the rest of this year that include not only New Orleans but the Downtown Summerlin shopping center in Las Vegas, Oak Brook Center in suburban Chicago, and Avalon Center in Alpharetta, Georgia, according to the company. Roughly double that number of openings are planned for next year.

In addition to Hackensack, next spring True Food Kitchen eateries are scheduled to open in the Roosevelt Field mall in Garden City, New York; Gardens Mall in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida; and CityPlace in West Palm Beach, Florida. The chain is also slated to open up shop next year and in 2021 at Reston Town Center in Reston, Virginia; The Falls in Miami, MidTown in Tampa, Florida, as well as in Annapolis, Maryland, and Sunrise, Florida.

Growing Demand

True Food Kitchen is riding the tide of the top culinary trends this year with its emphasis on “clean” or natural unprocessed foods and veggie-centric offerings. Millennials are seeking out such fare, food industry experts say. And while there aren’t many pure-play national health food restaurant chains like it, True Food Kitchen still has competition. Many restaurants and food-service segments are catering in some shape or form to the demand for healthier menu items. And there are many independent eateries on the local level that offer and tout their farm-fresh, healthy menus, experts said.

True Food Kitchen boasts that its seasonal menu is guided by the anti-inflammatory food pyramid, with an emphasis on simple ingredients prepared to highlight their natural health benefits and flavors.

“From nutrient-dense staples and responsibly sourced proteins to little-known super foods, True Food Kitchen is committed to sourcing the most creative and freshest in-season ingredients,” the chain said.

This is not the “low-fat, low-cal, low-salt, low flavor, low taste” health food of yore, according to Darren Tristano, chief executive of FoodserviceResults, a food and restaurant consulting firm in Chicago.

“They try to avoid a lot of the foods that have preservatives, and hormones and things of that nature,” he said. “Because of that, they’re creating better flavor profiles, so much fresh ingredients that the food is better than the typical healthy foods that older consumers think of.”

Instead, True Food Kitchen has a bar menu with “great drinks,” has offerings with "a great range of price points" and serves “quite frankly, really good-tasting” food, Tristano said.

The chain is also in step with a healthier direction observed by the restaurant industry. Veggie-centric/vegetable-forward cuisine and offering natural ingredients on a “clean” menu were among the top culinary trends cited in a 2019 survey by the National Restaurant Association.

Tristano said he characterizes True Food Kitchen as a “contemporary casual” or “upscale casual” restaurant, with checks averaging between $25 and $50, and a customer base of lifestyle-oriented, higher-income patrons as well as millennial consumers.

Chains and restaurateurs have to cater to the demands of younger patrons, who are much more focused on healthy food options than baby boomers, according to Hudson Riehle, senior vice president of research for the National Restaurant Association.

That trade group’s research has found that two out of three American adults say the availability of healthy options factors directly into their choice of a restaurant; and that ratio is higher for millennials, almost three out of four, Riehle said. So restaurant owners have to align with the wants of the demographics, he said.

“I would term this a mega trend meaning that it transcends the different segments of the food service industry,” Riehle said, adding that the National Restaurant Association tracks sales and trends in almost 70 different segments of the industry.

“So this is one of these trends that is definitely a long-term trend and not a fad, and so it means regardless of the segment — whether it’s table service where there is wait staff present, whether it’s quick service where in general there’s no wait staff present — these are long term, broad-based consumer trends, which have been developing for several years now and will continue to play out in the years ahead,” he said.

Tristano said True Food Kitchen doesn’t have many direct competitors but cited the health-oriented regional restaurant chains such as Seasons 52, LYFE Kitchen and Cooper's Hawk Winery & Restaurants. In particular, he predicted True Food Kitchen and Seasons 52 are the chains “that are going to blossom.”

But Tristano said he views True Food Kitchen’s stiffest competition coming from independent restaurants that offer vegan or vegetarian menus, as well as some upscale restaurant eateries.

The True Food Kitchen in New Orleans is scheduled to open Sept. 25. The roughly 6,000-square-foot eatery will have 174 seats, with a covered patio for another 44 patrons. The interior will feature an open kitchen, locally inspired artwork and will incorporate eco-friendly materials such as hardwood floors and chairs made of recycled soda bottles, according to the chain.

It is located at The Julia at St. Charles, a mixed-use development with more than 17,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space and nearly 200 apartments.

Next year's addition of True Food Kitchen to The Shops at Riverside is part of the final phase of a major updating of that mall, its director of marketing, Melissa Koronakis, said in a statement. The mall is anchored by Bloomingdale's, Barnes & Noble and Pottery Barn. It has its own restaurant row, with eight full-service dining establishments.