The Green Owl, which founding chef Jennie Capellaro put up for sale in February 2018 so she could explore other avenues, now has a new owner. Erick Fruehling, who had been the restaurant’s kitchen manager, closed on the deal on Nov. 25.
“We are keeping it The Green Owl that everybody knows,” Fruehling says in a phone interview. “There’ll be a few menu changes, just to put a little new spin on it, but everything still will be vegetarian with heavy vegan options.” Fruehling also helped create some of the dishes the last time the cafe changed its menu.
Fruehling has been working at The Green Owl, 1970 Atwood Ave., for six years on and off. As a native Madisonian who grew up in the neighborhood and attended East High School, he’s excited to be the one to carry on at what has become a Schenk’s Corners institution.
When The Green Owl opened in 2009, it was Madison’s only solely vegetarian restaurant. It is now joined by the Surya Cafe, which opened a Madison location in the Garver Feed Mill early this fall; Surya also has a cafe in Fitchburg.
Fruehling took an indirect route to becoming a chef. He studied botany at UW-Madison and began working in natural resources, doing invasive species counts and the like, mostly seasonal work: “It’s hard to study plants in Wisconsin in the winter.” Working at restaurants during his off-season, he found he really loved working in kitchens: “I love eating, and Madison has a really good food community.”
Fruehling would like to increase the amount of local produce used in the restaurant’s dishes. “We do some, like our kale, but it would be nice to expand and it’s actually fairly easy to do in Madison,” he says.
Fruehling says he doesn’t identify as either vegetarian or vegan, but cooks and eats a lot of vegetarian food. “I think there are a lot of reasons why people may be vegetarian or vegan or just choose to eat more vegetarian and vegan food, and I fall into that [latter] category.”
The new menu items have been created and Fruehling says he’s in the process of “typing up a menu.” He expects the new dishes will launch soon.
