Amelia "Ame" Taton is passionate about a lot of things, but her new business, DaBORO's restaurant at 510 Water Street in Chardon, tops her list.When…
Amelia “Ame” Taton is passionate about a lot of things, but her new business, DaBORO’s restaurant at 510 Water Street in Chardon, tops her list.
When she wrote her business plan for the healthy foods operation in 1995, Taton had clear goals and she has become more determined to meet them over the years.
“I’m very, very passionate about this,” she said, sitting in a booth during a morning lull. “I want it to be fun, fresh, very healthy and very healing.”
A menu of fresh fruits and vegetables, locally grown when possible, presented in bowls or non-gluten rolls is available on a grab-and-go basis.
Folks with more time are welcome to be seated in the bright, uncluttered dining room. Taton said her staff will create meals to order.
Although she was raised in Kirtland, Taton spent 20 years in Arizona and then received her bachelor’s degree in Las Vegas. She has taken a variety of jobs, from managing a Convenient Store chain to working in a law firm that catered to casinos on Indian reservations.
While out West, she was constantly seeking out fresh, healthy food never exposed to chemicals. It was a frustrating mission.
After 20 years in the Southwest, she returned to Northeast Ohio and settled in Chardon in 1998 to raise her family.
Two years ago, a divorce seemed to help line up the cards in her favor.
“All these things fell into place to put this together,” Taton said.
DaBORO’s opened in February and her dream of serving the public fresh, whole, healthy, uncontaminated food has come true.
It was a long time coming, Taton said, but she feels the timing is right, as even the medical field has picked up on the idea of healthy eating.
Not only does she have the restaurant in Chardon, she has a kiosk at the Willoughby Hills branch of the Cleveland Clinic and has been invited to be a guest chef at the Hillcrest Hospital bistro in Mayfield Heights, she said.
Her other kiosks are located at the Lake County Courthouse in Painesville and at the Healthy Pursuits health store on North State Avenue in Middlefield.
“These opportunities are just opening up,” Taton said.
The DaBORO’s menu includes many if the same items that the medical profession urges on people with cancer.
“I try to use locally grown fruits and vegetables,” she said. “I grow a lot of them myself.”
Green beans, broccoli, beets, basil, potatoes and corn are all harvested, chemical-free, from a garden on a friend’s property in Linesville, Pa., Taton said.
Other ingredients, such as asparagus, grow in her Chardon backyard.
“I’m trying to appeal to a variety of people,” she said, including vegans and vegetarians.
Her staff of about 15 full-time and part-time employees will juice anything on request.
“We cater to each person, individually,” she said.
Some of DaBORO’s most popular items are pizza rolls, gluten-free wraps containing home-made pesto and mozzarella cheese.
“They sell out every day and so do the Italian rolls,” Taton said. “Our maple kale chips are awesome, too.”
When she wrote her business plan in 1995, the effects of gluten on some people was not a huge topic of discussion.
Today, folks are very sensitive to gluten content and, conveniently, DaBORO’s menu is gluten-free.
“I didn’t even know my menu was gluten-free when I wrote it,” she said, but leaving wheat out of dishes has not been a hardship.
Meanwhile, her attention to healthy food has made an impression.
“There’s a big hole in the market,” Taton said, adding she is busy filling it with whole foods.
For more information, visit her website at www.deboros.com or call 440-279-4807.
