Enjoy Your Meal!
It would be rude
not to play with your food at this entrepreneur's creative, family-friendly restaurant.
What: A restaurant that
caters to kids
Who: Angela Roth of Peanut
Butter & Ellie's
Where: Portland, Oregon
When: Started in 2001
When angela roth's daughter, Ellie, was a newborn, Roth
daydreamed about all the neat places she would take her when she
was a toddler. One of the places she had in mind was a
health-conscious, fun restaurant designed especially for kids.
Before long, Roth realized it would be up to her to actually
create the restaurant she envisioned. So she researched how to
write a business plan, sought assistance from the SBA's SCORE
program and attended business classes at a local community college.
Eventually, the former graphic artist obtained an SBA-backed loan
for $70,000. Coupled with an additional $16,000 in savings and
$2,500 borrowed from Roth's family and friends, Peanut Butter
& Ellie's was finally born.
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"If you're going to have a fun place for kids, it needs
to be unique," says Roth, 31, who expects that the
restaurant's first-year sales will reach $180,000. "There
has got to be something that draws them in."
At Peanut Butter & Ellie's, kids can sit alone at tables
just their size, sit with their parents or even host a party.
What's more, they are allowed to make a mess, be as noisy as
they want, write or draw on an entire wall that's covered in
chalkboard paint, play with puzzles and toys, participate in
various art activities, run around in the grassy backyard play area
and eat at picnic tables.
Kids also love the healthy menu consisting of assorted
sandwiches (most are peanut butter topped with fruit jams, raisins,
bananas and the like) and fun snacks (such as ants on a log and
fruit smoothies)--all made with organic ingredients. And their
parents appreciate the bottomless coffee!
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