The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
‘Reinventing fast food’
MIDDLETOWN — A city native is trying to revolutionize the fast-food industry.
Mercy High School graduate Shannon Allen — a singer, actress and wife of retired NBA all-star and Olympic gold-medalist Ray Allen — is the owner and creator of Grown in the Wesleyan R.J. Julia Bookstore. Shannon Allen, who launched the chain 17 months ago, has six locations, including the Miami flagship, which, like many of the locations, has a drive-thru.
Shannon Allen boasts that Grown is the first USDA, organic-certified, fast-food restaurant in the country.
“We’re reinventing fast food,” she said.
The breakfast menu at the 413 Main St. eatery includes Acai bowls (made with the superfood berry), yogurt and granola, gluten-free blueberry pancakes, make-your-own omelets and house-made applewood organic thick-cut bacon. All-day offerings include freerange roasted chicken, shrimp, salmon, grass-fed brisket, falafel, fresh vegetables and grains. There are also soups, salads and sandwiches along with smoothies and house-made juices.
All meats, fruits and veggies are fresh and many are locally grown, said Atia Hart, manager of Grown’s downtown eatery. The menu can be adapted to customers’ dietary needs and allergies, and the restaurant is peanut-free.
“If you wanted a vegan quesadilla, we can do it and we can do it well,” she said. “I think that’s really what makes us special.”
Growing up, Allen said, she ate a lot of fresh foods prepared from ingredients in her father’s garden. There were jams and jellies she and her mom made and, on spaghetti nights, her dad made the sauce from scratch using tomatoes he jarred. At the same time, she and her sister spent a lot of time with their mother, Jackie Williams, owner of Sterling Realtors in Middletown. On long days, when they ventured between open houses and showings, they would stop for a quick bite at a fast food drive-thru.
“So there was this kind of polarity in my life, real food, (and) fast food,” she said.
Allen learned how to cook after falling in love with and marrying the former Celtics player, she said. She spent many years preparing nutrient-dense pre-game meals for the NBA champion, who lives in Miami.
The seeds for Grown were sown in 2008, when the couple was living in Boston and Ray Allen was away playing for the Celtics. One night, Allen, who was pregnant with her fourth child, was out and about with her children. Her then 17-month-old son Walker Allen, who has Type 1 Diabetes, suffered a blood-sugar crisis.
“I realize that Walker needs food right now,” she recalled. “I’m driving up and down Route 9, in and out of fast-food restaurants.”
The meal she was looking for, one made with healthy organic food, such as a free-range chicken and some veggie side dishes, simply did not exist, she said.
“I was super frustrated, I felt incredibly powerless,” Shannon Allen said. “I went home and called my husband and said, ‘You know what? If no one has the (guts) to reinvent fast food, then I’m going to do it.”
It took eight years to open Grown and along the way, Shannon Allen encountered naysayers who told her she couldn’t do it.
“‘If they could actually do it, someone much smarter than you — a man — would have already done it,’” she was told. “People still say it’s nothing short of astonishing.”
Not only does the eatery offer all-organic fare, Shannon Allen’s employees make a fair wage, get health insurance and a free employee meal, she said. Because of that, she is able to retain her workers.
“We’re creating a culture and we’re providing jobs for people and pride for people in an otherwise typically dismal experience,” she said.
Hart loves working at Grown. “It’s an amazing concept and something I think is going to be huge,” she said. “It’s a really great place.”
Williams, who stopped by Grown on Friday to pick up lunch, said she was extremely proud of her daughter.
“She is changing the way people eat and showing organic, healthy, nutritious tasty food offered in a very healthy atmosphere,” Williams said. “I believe my daughter is a revolutionary. The fastfood industry needed this change for years, and it was only through her vision, her determination and her business acumen that she has established Grown as a force in the restaurant industry.”
Matt Munson, of Meriden, who starred on Season 13 of “The Bachelorette” and is a regular at Grown, stopped in for lunch last Friday also.
“This is all the stuff that I would normally eat. It just takes the work out of it and it leaves all the healthy benefits,” he said. “When I first came, it was cool to see all the things I normally eat on a daily basis on the wall.” His favorite dish? “At the end of the day, I really am a chicken salad fan and she makes a great chick salad,” Munson said.
Sue Smith and a friend were also having lunch. Smith said the food was “a little pricey.”
“With all the restaurants in town, there’s a lot of competition,” she said. “I mean it was good, the quality was good.”
The higher cost for the offerings is a challenge Grown staff are working on, Allen and Hart said.
In Middletown, the restaurant offers $9.99 meals on the student menu, which is available to all guests, and half-portions are also available.
“The ingredients are the best ingredients you can find and it’s not cheap to do, but this is a mission that we’re on,” Shannon Allen said. “Our mission is to change the fast-food industry one restaurant at a time.”
Grown is looking to grow, and Shannon Allen is hoping to open locations at Bradley International Airport, the University of Connecticut, rest stops in Fairfield County and Springfield, Mass., as well as other communities.
“2018 may be the year for the franchise,” she said.
For more information, see grown.org or call 860346-4769.
Chicken quesadillas are ready to be served at grown restaurant in the Wesleyan R.J. Julia Bookstore. Growing up, owner Shannon Allen said she ate a lot of fresh foods prepared from ingredients in her father’s garden. “There was this kind of polarity in my life, real food, fast food,” she said.