The Lady and the Shallot opened in the Trenton Farmers Market in 2018 as something of a novelty: a vegan food stand at a time when there were almost no restaurants around that were committed to a completely plant-based menu.
Owners Kate Wnek and Francesca Avitto spent seven years at the farmers market, building up a base of loyal customers. While there they have also witnessed the growth of the vegan dining market, including other stands within the farmers market.
So successful has The Lady and the Shallot been that Wnek and Avitto are making the leap to a traditional bricks-and-mortar restaurant spot. The new location is in Campus Town, the mixed commercial and residential zone on the campus of The College of New Jersey in Ewing. The new sit-down restaurant is set to open in December, offering all of The Lady and the Shallot’s familiar favorite dishes as well as some new ones.
When it comes to running The Lady and the Shallot, Kate and Francesca say they share responsibilities about as equally as any partners can. They both create the menus and recipes, prep, cook, and work the register.
At the same time, they say, they do have different strengths, and they look to maximize those as well. Wnek grew up cooking, working in restaurants, learning this craft from passion at a very young age. She’d make her parents elaborate meals regularly. From early on in the couple’s relationship, she taught her partner a lot about expanding her palate of flavors and cooking professionally.
Avitto grew up in a large Italian family, where everything always revolved around food and togetherness. On the other hand, she was diagnosed with her first autoimmune disease at 23, which almost took her life. She became vegetarian at 17 for the sake of the animals, and her passion grew into a health-conscious one after her diagnosis, which is when she began to live a very healthy lifestyle. She began creating meals that were clean and healthy, but not boring.
She opened her first arts and hospitality business a year later which is where she taught herself marketing and event planning as it was an arts collaborative with a large gallery and event space as well as a bar. Her company held large-scale events in and out of their studio as well as gallery exhibitions. They had members from all over the tri-state area, and she gained plenty of knowledge in hospitality that have served The Lady and the Shallot well through the last seven years.
Community News interviewed Francesca and Kate in advance of their Campus town grand opening. Answers have been lightly edited for length and clarity.
Community News: When did you start thinking that you might like to move out of the market?
The Lady and the Shallot: Our business really began to grow. Our private dinners and events were becoming more popular, and we began to cater more weddings, larger events. There were times where we were cooking for events with head counts in the hundreds out of our tiny kitchen at the market. If we had an event, we’d have to close because there wouldn’t be enough room to cook for the day and for an event simultaneously.
We will always be grateful for our time at the market, the friends we’ve made in our small business community, the access to delicious Jersey Fresh produce, the lifelong customers we’ve met. We’re also grateful to have had the opportunity to start a vegan movement in a market full of beautiful produce, but (also) filled with BBQ and fried chicken restaurants. An otherwise foreign idea of a vegan restaurant was welcomed with open arms, not only in the market but in Lawrence Township. Where, at the time, there had not been any healthy places to eat, we created the kind of place where we’d like to eat.
People come from all over just to try a vegan business. As vegans, we get that. We will drive anywhere to try a new spot! The furthest anyone has ever told us they’ve driven to try us was from Upstate New York. How could we not be consumed with gratitude. We create something out of love and people take the time to come and try it.
Over time, things began to change, we had certain needs that couldn’t be met, we wanted to be open more often and we decided it was time to start looking. Our Campus Town location was the first place we came across and the only place we looked. We knew right away this place was meant for us.
Community News: You had been at the Trenton Farmers Market during a time when the market welcomed many new and diverse food and dining vendors. Is there anything you will miss about being there?
The Lady and the Shallot: We came into the market about a year before (former market manager) Chris Cirkus came along and really diversified it. She began to bring in many different businesses, like the amazing coffee shop Kafe Ojala, a tea cafe, Terra Momo bakery, boutiques, a really cool and unique oddities store called Out of Step and many others.
It was an explosion of creativity and we were so happy to be a part of it. We’ll miss the camaraderie between the businesses, jokes between us, just genuinely fun times. Many of us became very close over the years.
Community News: As you prepare to open in your new location, what are the things that you are most excited about?
The Lady and the Shallot: We are truly excited to see our regular customers. We’ve been closed a little while due to the construction, and we really miss their smiling faces, their warmth and kindness. Our customers made our experience a beautiful one.
We are also excited to be open seven days a week, and serve our food on real plates. We have really tried to create a calming and welcoming space. We want people to feel welcome to spend time, students to have a place to sit back and study, things like that.
Community News: What significant challenges have you faced as a consequence of making this move?
The Lady and the Shallot: The only challenge we’ve really come across has been learning that a buildout takes more time than we’d imagined. We thought we’d be open much sooner. However, we are big believers that things will pan out as they’re supposed to, so patience has been key.
Community News: How did you settle on Campus Town for your first bricks-and-mortar location?
The Lady and the Shallot: We always loved the aspect of having our business in a community. That was the draw of our previous location. Through the years, we’ve spoken about potential areas we’d love to expand to and a college area always popped up in conversation.
Many of our customers live very close, and kids are the future of health and wellness, kind and compassionate eating. As well as being a vegan business, we are also gluten free, peanut, tree nut and coconut free, inspired by our nephew with severe nut allergies. Through the years we’ve always had many TCNJ students and faculty as customers, whether they’re vegan, are just fans of our food or have food allergies. We are happy to provide that space for them.
Community News: How are things going to be different at the new location?
The Lady and the Shallot: We will now be able to open seven days a week: Monday through Saturday from 9 to 7 and Sunday brunch from 9 to 2. It’ll still be fast casual and order at the counter, so more like "fancy fast casual." Our dishes will be served in nondisposable bowls and plates. We are very excited to offer plenty of outdoor seating as well.
Community News: Is the menu any different?
The Lady and the Shallot: Many of the dishes have not changed at all. For example, our biggest sellers — The Rainbow (rainbow tacos) and our award-winning Three Bean Chili — will never leave the menu.
Most of our menu has remained the same. Some items will remain the same, but will have name changes. Dish names that may have sounded perfect for a market, but maybe not so much in a more upscale restaurant atmosphere.
We have also added a lot. Some of our most popular specials have made it to the everyday menu. We have a new small plates menu, new salads and bowls, a toasts menu and a new breakfast item. We’ve also decided to incorporate a plant-based chicken to the menu based on customer requests over the years. Our favorite is Daring plant-based chicken. It’s a gluten-free vegan brand with minimal ingredients. We really want to give our customers what they’ve requested, and that was something they often asked for.
Community News: How will the new location affect your catering operations?
The Lady and the Shallot: In the beginning, we won’t be offering catering. We want our staff to become comfortable in their roles and get our footing before adding catering to the mix. However, once we get back into catering, we’re excited to have more space for it.
Community News: What have your regular customers been saying about the move?
The Lady and the Shallot: Our customers are very excited. They’ve really expressed so much support and enthusiasm. They miss us as we’ve been closed a while, but we have promised to make it all worth the wait! We hope they enjoy it.
Community News: What else does the future hold for The Lady and the Shallot?
The Lady and the Shallot: We are just really excited to get back to work. We have learned that we’re not meant to rest. We just want to get into a groove, we are excited and curious to see what that groove looks like in a new space.
Our new team is very eager to get started, and many of them are TCNJ students. For now, we can’t wait to get back to what we do, continue our passion of feeding clean, kind and compassionate food to the community.
As far as our future, customers have asked us for years to create a cookbook, and that is something we are both very excited to create. We plan on creating a line of cookbooks from everyday plant-based recipes to anti-inflammatory books and more. Stay tuned.