December 16-22, 2004

food

Returning The Kindness

by Bruce Schimmel

KC McQuillan is probably lucky that Mayor Street pulled a no-show for lunch at her Chuckwagon, the predecessor to her Kind Cafe, when he was first elected. As she tells it, had the mayor shown up during campaigning, she might not have pursued his chief rival, Sam Katz, to garner support for her organic vegan and raw Kind Cuisine.

Now with Katz's help, and a recent grand prize from New Profiteers' sustainable business competition, McQuillan is expecting a cash infusion of over $500,000 from investors. The money will be used to expand her single shop into a citywide retail operation with a projected $13.8 million in revenue within three years.

McQuillan met Katz while he was campaigning for mayor across the street from her cafe in Northern Liberties. "I accosted Sam with my Kind Cakes, and he called me back in 15 minutes." Kind Cakes are McQuillan's organic answer to TastyKakes. Kind Cuisine has a full menu of prepared items.

With the help of the nutrition degree she earned in 1995, McQuillan started serving organic vegan and raw food from a truck on Penn's campus in 1997. Before that, she spent 15 years as a nurse, but she quit hospital nursing "because you have no idea what it is to see a young teenager, kids, dying of cancer and think, "This doesn't have to happen.'"

In 2001, McQuillan closed the Chuckwagon outpost and expanded her catering business. Kind Cafe at 724 N. Third opened in October last year, and a few weeks later she met Katz. Katz later introduced her to Michael Cassady, who is experienced in franchise food operations, and a detailed business plan was born.

"I convinced Sam and Mike about the truth about the food," she says with careful emphasis. McQuillan is a walking encyclopedia of food facts, and over lunch she launches into a familiar refrain: "The truth is that an organic, plant-based diet has an almost magical ability to promote health and prevent disease.

"I'm not allowed to say that it will "cure disease,' but I can say that this kind of diet can alleviate symptoms of most of the major diseases people suffer from."

McQuillan turns 40 this spring. She says everyone tells her she's got a lot of energy, and you can feel her personal drive from the other side of the table. In addition to her Kind Cakes, we sample her Rawsome Pizza, Chuckwagon Chili (which is cooked), which is washed down with a power drink called LiquidLight.

As we finish eating, McQuillan renews her invitation to Street: "Mr. Mayor, come to the Kind Cafe. Let's sit and have lunch over some Kind Cuisine and talk about how we can enhance the health of the Kind City of Philadelphia."