Chef Dave Heide and his youngest, “Little John,” namesake to his latest venture.
What if someone told you that you could have a chef-driven restaurant with entrees made with perfectly good food that would otherwise go to waste, that would train unemployed veterans in the kitchen (and thereby help solve the area’s current cook shortage), and feed for no or low cost those who don’t know where their next meal is coming from?
That’s the concept driving Little John’s, the latest project from chef Dave Heide (Liliana’s, Charlie’s on Main.) Little John’s will be a “pay what you can” restaurant, part of a small but growing movement around the globe intended to get good food to those who otherwise could not afford it and grow community by also attracting customers who can pay market price — or more — for their meals.
Little John’s will address “three major pillars,” says Heide, “food sustainability, food access and job training.”
Little John’s will have a leg up over other pay what you can eateries. Little John’s is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit; its space will be donated, and most ingredients will be donations from area grocery stores, food that has reached its sell-by date but not its expiration date. Thus, Little John’s also addresses sustainability and the huge problem of food waste.
The idea was born a couple years back when Heide and restaurateur Patrick DePula were participating in a food sustainability conference at Madison College. Heide asked Tim Metcalfe, of Metcalfe’s Market, to donate one day’s worth of waste product from the Hilldale store. “We had 600-plus people at the conference and made more than 3,600 portions of food for them, and you could barely tell that we had touched what Metcalfe donated,” says Heide. “That’s what sparked it — all that food, and how terrible it is that we have people going hungry.”
Metcalfe’s does currently donate good food that it can no longer sell to the River Food Pantry and Purple Cow Organics of Middleton, which makes compost, Heide notes.
Little John’s will provide culinary training to military vets, with a six-month long paid training program, says Heide. These are skills that are much needed in the area as “the restaurant scene in Madison keeps on growing,” Heide notes. “We need more people excited and happy about cooking.”
Heide is just back from the recent One World, Everybody Eats conference in New Orleans. This organization is the driving force behind a chain of nonprofit cafes. The organization was started by Denise Cerreta, who opened the first pay what you can venture, the One World Cafe in Salt Lake City. According to the One World website, there are five such cafes in the works for Wisconsin, in Wausau, Oshkosh, Marshfield, Milwaukee and “northern Wisconsin.”
Little John’s will be on the west side. Although Heide considered a downtown site, there were some problems with that plan, including the cost to transport the waste food from the donating markets to the restaurant site. Plus, due to multiple meal sites, food access is less of a problem in downtown Madison (shelter is the more scarce resource there). In many other areas of the city, there is great “food insecurity,” says Heide. People may be living “three families to a hotel room” and with limited transportation. Or they may be spending the bulk of their income on housing, leaving little for food.
The goal with pay what you can restaurants is to get 60 percent of customers paying market value for their meals, 20 percent paying over market value and 20 percent paying less.
There is currently no set opening date for Little John’s while some details with the lease are ironed out. After that’s settled — soon, Heide hopes — the build-out should take about another three months.
Eventually, Heide hopes to add a couple of food carts that will take food to neighborhoods designated “food deserts,” like Allied Drive, where it’s been hard to get to a large supermarket or restaurant without a car.
With two other restaurants to run, how does Heide have time for this labor-intensive project? “I have amazing staff at Liliana’s and Charlie’s on Main,” Heide says, freeing him to devote time to a restaurant that will served the community in multiple ways. “I won’t be around forever. What do I want to leave behind as a legacy?”
[Editor's note: This article has been corrected to reflect 60 percent, not 6 percent, of customers would be paying market value.]
