100% keto restaurants—will the future see them?


(Paul Melzer) #61

When I read some YELP reviews, and saw some attached photos there and elsewhere, the appearance of the dishes looked terrible, like off-color mush. I assume the food line is doing okay—certainly seeing the products in lots of stores.


(Brian) #63

Awesome!

I’ve wondered whether there aren’t some opportunities for keto desserts maybe where a full restaurant might not make it. (Were I a little younger with a little more money and ambition, I might just have a go at it.)

There are times when I’ve made some muffins or cookies or cakes when others have commented that they are “to die for”. And the people commenting aren’t even keto. Seriously, some of our keto stuff is REALLY good.

There are a lot of people out there who struggle with insulin related stuff. And there are a lot of quick treats that they just can’t have, at least not guilt free, from ice cream to cookies to cakes and pastries.

I could see a bake shop or catering business making some decent coin putting out good keto desserts. I could also see how moving from a business like that into a full restaurant might be a possibility as you’d already have a clientele of people built up that already know you have really good keto friendly desserts.


(Dan) #64

A lady in Spartanburg SC is opening a keto friendly restaurant soon, hopefully this month. Jimmy Moore lives in Spartanburg and I think has tried to help her out with suggestions. About a 20 minute drive from me. Looking forward to trying it and curious how they will do. Here is a short video from the owner


(KetoQ) #65

I’m with you Nebulous. My wife and daughter get all worked up about picking a place to eat that will be right for me. I just tell them to pick anywhere, I’ll figure it out. As you said, you can get meat, veg and a salad at virtually any restaurant. Plus, many places offer a lot of choices for sides so that eating low carb really isn’t that difficult.

Now, it may not be grassfed beef, but I do most of my shopping at WalMart anyway, and my wife will often pick up grassfed beef for me at Trader Joe’s.

I love me the Jimmy John’s because they have the “Unwich” which is a sandwich in a lettuce wrap. And there is one a block from my office. Perfect on that rare occasion when I feel like lunch and want to do it right.


(Brian) #66

Great! Wish they were a little closer, I might have to give them a try myself. :slight_smile:


(Paul Melzer) #67

The points some are raising about being able to order some kind of keto-friendly food in most places is not in opposition to a desire for a fully keto menu and/or restaurant—at least not in my mind. Nevertheless, to order “I’d like a steak and broccoli, and please don’t cook it in soybean oil,” you might get some spit in the dish. I think it’s true that most cooks really don’t like these sorts of requests…it makes their already hard work that much harder. It takes a VERY special restaurant to happily oblige special requests. As for a restaurant that has a special menu for this LCHF eating, the chefs are already supporting it and are taking pride in preparing it. So the argument that you can simply order keto anywhere you go is entirely besides the point that the OP was making (I’m the OP so I think I can say that), that it would and will be really great when and if these restaurants and menus [within other non keto specialty restaurants] are more readily available.


(Paul Melzer) #68

Any chance we could see the menu?Thanks


#69

…a little bit on one piece of steak won’t derail anyone.


(Kirsten) #70

I don’t know if somebody else mentioned this but we have an all keto ice cream shop here in St Paul, and i haven’t found it empty the times I’ve gone, so maybe that is promising!


(Paul Melzer) #71

Agree, and actually, a few pieces of KFC with mashed potatoes, cornbread, and a slice of apple pie wouldn’t derail me personally. …all I’m saying is, wouldn’t it be nice?


(Todd Allen) #72

Here’s a directory of paleo friendly restaurants. Not a lot, but at least it’s a start.
https://paleolocal.com/


(Amy Ramadan) #73

My hubby and I own an Italian restaurant, luckily our menu is easily adapted to fi r into LC, keto, vegetarian etc. For this I am very grateful for bc I love our good and would hate to have to do without it!!!


(Lin D Sey Allen) #74

I’m curious about how to make sweet desserts without using sweeteners. What are people using instead?


(Lin D Sey Allen) #75

Any update on this restaurant?


(Brian) #76

I’m not in the know on this one. I only commented that if they were closer, I’d like to check the out. At the moment, I’m like 1,800 miles away. (?)


(Louise Ungerman) #78

I have been thinking about this a LOT. I think the key is for it to be a Keto/Paleo restaurant but naming it something that doesn’t turn away people thinking it’s a ‘diet’ place. It needs to be perceived as quality (not necessarily fine) dining with the sneaky benefit of not having all the carbs and garbage in it. My family often likes the keto food I make as long as I don’t say this is diet food. I know I get frustrated and easily fall off the wagon because we eat out so often because of work. If there were an option to go and eat or pick up prepped meals I would be all over it. I saw an empty restaurant building the other night…


(Dirty Lazy Keto'er, Sucralose freak ;)) #79

Wait, wait… Hold it right there… Grain fed beef is 100% keto ! And as far as whether it’s as healthy as grass fed beef, you’d just be splitting hairs ! With almost no real proof of anything.

Grain fed beef, farm raised salmon, organic smoranic, yada, yada…
Don’t believe the hype.

Keep your carbs below 20gms a day. Eat enough protein and fat to keep you full, but try to lean the balance of these towards fats… And try to get some exercise. Bam :slightly_smiling_face: Your good. Don’t make this any more complicated than it needs to be.


(Dirty Lazy Keto'er, Sucralose freak ;)) #80

Why ? Artificial sweeteners are 100% Keto. Okay granted, many of them just taste lousy, but Splenda is great :wink:


#81

I suggest you don’t assume I’m not well-informed - I view LCHF/keto through an ancestral health lens. Dismissing something as hype just to make a point might just delay your own knowledge after all.

Sure, one can go far in low carb/keto on industrial meats for practical short term purposes with many, many health benefits! However once one is well fat-adapted and metabolically healthier, one may naturally get more interested in nuances like fatty acids profiles, and knowing where one’s food comes from - which then gets very interesting… With LCHF/keto, eventually most of us start to eat less via IF or other fasting - and become able to explore the topic of food-sourcing, what our food dollars support, and test it out for ourselves.

There’s also no question that the bigger picture of healing, land restoration, and food justice matters too at some point as we leave the SAD and recover new appreciation for nutrient-dense food and curiosity about where it comes from. It’s much easier if one has access to good markets or knows some traditional/respectful hunters (food ghettos in cities are real - areas that also have a heavy presence of fastfood vendors). Or, if one lives in an intl city, one can always get grassfed lamb/mutton at Punjabi/Pakistani/Mediterranean/Iranian restaurants (sheep are a particular ruminant that quickly gets sick on grain feed, so they are around 99% grassfed before slaughter).

Just the facts: traditional pasture-raised meat is not only more humanely raised & slaughtered - it has a different fatty acid profile. Intensively grain-fed creatures aren’t fed the way livestock was fed just 3-4 generations ago (alfalfa and clover feed instead of grain). Grains are not a natural primary food for traditional and wild bovines and porcines (and fowl also prefer higher protein bugs/slugs with other nibbles secondary). So grains fatten them of course, and this fattening occurs via metabolic derangement (also known as insulin resistance - Dr. Lustig suggests calling it “processed-food disease”). I’d rather eat meat from metabolically healthy animals if I have an option (and I realize even having the option is frequently a matter of economic privilege for those who live in urban food deserts). Interestingly, the fat on grain-fed animals is extremely high in Omega 6 rather than the Omega 3s of pastured animals - these fatty acids are converted in the body to a pro-inflammatory compound called arachidonic acid (which complicates inflammation in lots of people depending on history and genetics). This is just one factor of many that indicate that industrial meat & animal products are a different substance of compounds from what our grandparents or great-grands along with all pre-history ancestors ate. Personally I’ve found that LCHF/keto’s MODERATE (rather than high) protein intake formulation assists in affording pastured eggs & meat & cheese and wild caught seafood.

2/3 of the world’s grasslands have been desertified/rendered sterile (not like an actual desert, which is rich with life) by industrial ag, and traditional grazing societies have been displaced or destroyed. In addition, thriving grasslands (fertilized by live manure) sequester carbon and protect the biosphere. We need “Regenerative Farming” and “Permaculture”. The Allan Savory Institute’s Land to Market program is the world’s first outcome-based, verified-regenerative sourcing solution grounded in holistic land stewardship, a global movement of farmers and land managers aiming to change food economics and distribution. Joel F. Salatin’s Polyface Farms - featured in the keto documentary film The Magic Pill - values the spirit of food - which is the way all of our ancestors not too long ago viewed food. Supporting small farmers and wild game hunters through an exchange economy is also an option (a friend of mine just negotiated receiving lots of recently hunted elk in exchange for assisting someone in their tool shop for two hours, as the dude’s other family members don’t like wild game!).

The eminent researcher and professor Robert Lustig MD’s take on the subject is well worth pondering, he is an elder who absolutely pulls no punches anymore on a variety of topics:

“Next time you’re at the butcher, have them show you strip steak from grassfed cow and from a corn-fed cow. The grassfed steak is pink, and pretty homogenous throughout. It’s delicious, but when you grill it up it’s a little tough. Now look at the corn-fed steak, see all that marbling? We love it because that’s where the flavor is. And after grilling, it practically cuts with a butter knife. That marbling is fat in the muscle. That’s muscle insulin resistance. That cow had metabolic syndrome; we just happened to slaughter it before it got sick, and now we’re consuming the aftereffects in each and every Big Mac.”

The Hacking Of The American Mind: The Science Behind The Corporate Takeover Of Our Bodies And Brains, pp. 126-127

Lately I’ve been pleasantly surprised to find 100% pastured/grassfed meat and wild-caught fish as a small part of the menu - and also clarity about what kinds of fats they are cooking with - at a few independent restaurants who are changing menus and attitudes - and I’m very pleased. I don’t care if the restaurant is 100% keto as much as I care about this, and the ability to exchange sides of rice n’ beans for a gourmet salad without the server having their head explode.


(Dirty Lazy Keto'er, Sucralose freak ;)) #82

‘One’ might later get more interested… But not me.
I’m only interested in the big picture.

I think getting all super technical and scientific about Keto ‘might’ help a few people to do just a ‘little bit’ better than they would without it.
But on the other hand, I think it will scare a lot more away, thinking, ‘Wow this Keto thing is really complicated’ ! When the reality is, it doesn’t have to be.