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The Apollo bowl features brown rice, spinach, chicken, chickpeas, tomatoes, red onions, cucumbers, feta, pita chips and lemon-za'atar dressing. (Photo courtesy Roots Natural Kitchen)
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Roots Natural Kitchen is set to open July 20 at 939 W. Grace St. (Photo courtesy Roots Natural Kitchen)
The owners of Roots Natural Kitchen, a health-forward, fast-casual restaurant that first launched in Charlottesville, want people to rethink the dynamics of a quick meal when they open their doors at 939 W. Grace St. on Monday, July 30.
“Food is the center of everything, and it’s so important,” says co-founder Alberto Namnum, a 27-year-old University of Virginia economics graduate who moved to the U.S. from Mexico City at age 5. “People shouldn’t be sacrificing their health because they want something quick.”
Restaurants are nothing new to Namnum — his family owns a chain restaurant in Mexico, La Casa Del Pastor, and two restaurants in Florida called Divieto. After working at Capital One post-graduation, Namnum realized he was unhappy and had left a dream on the back burner.
“Opening a restaurant was something I always wanted to do,” he says. “I never thought I would own a fast-casual restaurant, but a healthy restaurant made a lot of sense, and I thought it would be successful.”
In 2015 Namnum paired with co-founder Alvaro Anspach. Both saw a lack of health-conscious dining options in the Charlottesville area and a void to be filled, and the wheels started turning. Later that year they entered the Galant Challenge, a startup competition through the McIntire School of Commerce at UVA, which led them to their future investor, Paul Gannon.
Namnum and Anspach knew that in order to make consumers rethink quick-casual, they needed a menu that was captivating and, most importantly, delicious. They picked up the phone and called restaurants in Charlottesville to ask chefs if they would assist them in crafting healthy recipes for the menu.
“We wanted to make food that tastes incredible and happens to be healthy, with big, bold flavors,” says Namnum. “We don’t want someone justifying a subpar experience because of the health benefit.”
The duo worked with the owners of Zocalo, a Latin bistro on the city's Downtown Mall, who brought their culinary visions to the forefront and helped Namnum and Anspach create a menu with healthy, distinctive, approachable options.
“[Roots Natural Kitchen is] a little unusual for a healthy place: There’s a lot of warm foods, rice and grilled items,” says Namnum.
The Charlottesville location opened in June 2015 and was a hit.
“A lot more people came to the restaurant than we expected, and we started to hear from people how unique it was,” says Namnum. “People said they would never eat salads or kale but did so because of RNK; it feels like we're helping the community we're in.”
The second location in Newark, Delaware, quickly followed, opening in 2016, and a Pittsburgh location is set to open in September of this year. Namnum says they chose Richmond because it seems like a health-conscious city, it’s close to their home store in Charlottesville, and the Grace Street location is close to the VCU campus.
Roots Natural Kitchen presents bowls like the El Jefe, where Mexican flavors come to life as brown rice and kale are accompanied by grilled chicken, black beans, charred corn, red onions, avocado and feta with a cilantro-lime dressing; the menu recommends a splash of fresh-squeezed lime and Tabasco to top it all off.
“There’s a lot of cilantro and lime,” says Namnum, "the two greatest things on the planet.”
One of the top-selling bowls is the Mayweather, a bountiful mix of earthy flavors and spices including bulgur, beets, goat cheese and red onions drizzled with a house-made lemon-tahini dressing.
Diners who enjoy getting creative can build a custom bowl from an array of ingredients — guests choose a base such as brown rice, kale or spinach; a protein, including chicken, BBQ tofu or mushrooms; and up to five ingredients ranging from cannellini beans, sweet potatoes or broccoli to Parmesan, tomatoes, lime-pickled onions or toasted almonds.
“We want food that tastes good, is good for you, and [what] we really want is to serve food at a price point that people find affordable, and I think we’ve done that,” says Namnum.
Roots Natural Kitchen is set to open July 20 at 939 W. Grace St. with daily hours from 10:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. They also offer catering.
