Listen to the interview here!
Rick Allebach
Toni Reece: Hi, there. This is Toni Reece. Welcome to the Get Inspired! Project for Berks County Living Magazine. Today I am with Rick Allebach. Rick, please take a moment and tell us a little bit about yourself.
Rick Allebach: I’m Rick Allebach. I have the Good Eatz Green Café in West Reading, and we specialize in natural, organic, local fare as well as specialty diets with gluten-free, dairy-free, vegetarian, and vegan. It’s been very well received in this community.
Toni: Let’s start with the first question of the Project. What does inspiration mean to you?
Rick: To me, inspiration is making a difference in someone’s life; the quality of life and so on and so forth, which is kind of why I’ve been in the food business all my life. It’s always been a people-driven scenario where you enjoy having people enjoy their lives and create a little haven for them to be social and enjoy and interact.
Toni: So it’s about making a difference. From your perspective, do you get inspired by making a difference, or are you inspired by others making a difference?
Rick: I think it’s a mixture of both. Personally, it’s very gratifying to me to make people happy, to have them enjoy themselves, and in the niche that I’m in right now, it’s kind of cool for me, because I deal with special needs diets, special needs people, and it’s nice to be able to go out and do something special for them and be appreciated.
Toni: How do you know when that inspiration hits you, that you have made that difference? Give me an example of that.
Rick: I would say probably on an every other day basis I get thanked just for opening the restaurant that I did, just for having a place where people can come. We’re such social creatures that breaking bread with people if you have different dietary ideas and restrictions and such, it can limit you, but being the social creatures that we are, when I see people come and interact from all walks of life and such, they come and they have a common place where they can meet, and they give me feedback, as I say, “Thank you so much for creating this,” or with special diets where I can take something and make it where it may be subpar the way others create it, I know that if I make a quality product, people give me feedback, and it stimulates me to do more.
Toni: You probably have already answered part of question number two, but how do you put that type of inspiration into practice in Berks County? I know you’re doing it with your restaurant, but I would imagine that you also are inspired by making a difference in service, and you also spoke a bit about the quality, so can you tell me a little bit more about how you put that into practice here?
Rick: One thing that we’ve done the last couple years is actually to give back to the community as much as possible. We enjoy supporting causes. We’ve done a Thanksgiving dinner for the less fortunate where we actually open up our doors for the Café and actually have people come in and eat Thanksgiving dinner with us, and it’s great. It’s very fulfilling for myself, for my staff. I get a lot of customers that actually call six, eight, nine months out and ask if we’re still accepting volunteers for Thanksgiving day.
Toni: That’s fantastic! How many people do you normally get on that day?
Rick: It varies. We’ve had as few as 20 and as much as 60 on a given day, and we will actually drive into the City of Reading and pick people up in our vans and bring them out and let them eat and take a doggy bag with them. It makes everybody feel good.
Toni: I would imagine. I had no idea that you did that, and that’s what is so wonderful about these podcasts, because now we all know that you do that as well.
Rick: Right.
Toni: Who in Berks County inspires you?
Rick: I’d have to say some of maybe your typical people like Albert Boscov and people that give back to the community. Tom McMahon, the former mayor – meeting him was a great thing. They put on the “Welcome to Reading” sign when we first opened up. He was bringing all kinds of people in, and then I got to know him personally. What a great guy and what a person that he is to sincerely care about what he does and things like that. The new mayor himself, Vaughn Spencer – he’s really trying. He’s got quite a task ahead. Then we have people like Alexis Campbell with the greenhouse in the city. People that actually care. Eron Lloyd, the special assistant to the Mayor, he is another one who is truly, really committed to making a better environment for people.
That’s the lucky part about my café is that we actually attract those kind of special people. There’s no sign outside, but it’s this subliminal thing where “special, caring people apply within” kind of thing, and that goes from my customers to my staff. A lot of my staff members are of that mindset that they really, truly want to help people. It’s somewhat selfish as far as it’s fulfilling to have people thank you for doing what you do and for making a difference in their lives.
Toni: It’s interesting to listen to you, that during defining what inspiration means to you, which is making a difference and creating a safe haven also for those that can come and eat the food that they can eat and you providing that to them, and yet you are also inspired by others in Berks County who make a difference, and they’re attracted to your restaurant. It’s really neat how that comes full circle, isn’t it?
Rick: Absolutely. In life, I feel you want to try to surround yourself with like-minded people. We’re a green café as well, so we recycle as much as possible. All of our takeouts are all compostable. Our takeout silverware is made out of corn starch and potato starch, so everything can go back to the earth. I was the first one really in the area, and it’s truly the only green café that we have in the area where it’s hormone-free chicken and beef, it’s natural products. It’s a mindset that I was really happy to bring to the area and really even happier yet to see the other people that it attracted.
Toni: Have you ever had anybody leave your restaurant and say, “I never thought that I would …,” or “Maybe I don’t have a special needs diet, but I’m trying something different,” and they leave saying, “I would have never ordered that before stepping into this restaurant, and now that I have – wow!” Have you gotten that kind of feedback?
Rick: Absolutely. A lot of the things that I’ve created for years – I’ve been cooking for over 30 years – I do a cream of mushroom soup that is a full, hearty, whole-flavored soup that’s made with coconut milk and it’s vegan. People say, “Oh, come on – this has to have cream in it.” Today we’re actually doing a vegan split pea soup, but it takes like there’s ham in it. People say, “Wow! I can't believe this!” It’s neat to do those kinds of things to turn people on to different things. We do a vegan Sloppy Joe. I’ve been to outdoor events and served that to people who say, “Oh, it’s vegan. I don’t really eat things that don’t have any meat in them,” and I’d say probably 60% to 70% people say, “Wow – that’s pretty darn good!”
Toni: What do you want your legacy to be?
Rick: I think just in reality, someone who cares. Someone who wants to give back who really enjoys interacting with people and helping people. My mom was a caregiver from the time I was a kid. My older brother was adopted. I’ve always been in the human services sector in some way, shape, or form, and the restaurant business is the hospitality industry, and you’re hospitable to everybody.
Years ago I worked with a guy in New Hope, and he said something to me that I’ve passed on to my people, which is kind of deep. He said, “When you create food for people, they trust you with their lives.” Especially with the special needs people that we deal with of course with impaired immune systems and such, but it’s one of those things were you try to teach your workers and so forth that it really is a special gift that you’re giving someone when they come and break bread with you.
Toni: Rick, thank you so much for being part of the Get Inspired! Project.
Rick: Thank you so much for the invitation. It’s a great concept and I’m proud to be involved. Thank you.
Toni: Thank you.
Rick Allebach
