March 02, 2004

By: James Sparks
Website: http://www.1st-in-steaks.com

The first and only low carb cafe in the country

In the last year, 50 million Americans have at least tried low carb diets such as Atkins and now it may be a lot easier to stay on those diets. Pure Foods Co-Executive Chefs Stephanie Goldfarb, who has worked for Halle Berry and Marcus Allen and Co-Executive Chef Marissa Mitchell who has worked for Quentin Tarantino and Cameron Crowe will open Pure Foods Low Carb Cafe in mid January at 350 North Canon Drive in Beverly Hills.

The duo has created a menu with over 15 low carb lunch and dinner items. The cafe's signature dessert is a low carb brownie topped with Atkins low carb vanilla ice cream, Atkins low carb chocolate sauce and cool whip with 6 net carbs. Each menu item will list the number of net carbs. Pure Foods, LLC will roll this concept out in several Southern California cities at the same time as they expand their low carb retail stores and introduce a line of low carb desserts, low carb pizza crisps and low carb ice creams in mid February 2004 to supermarkets and low carb retail stores Nationally. The average Pure Foods Low Carb Cafe will be 800 square feet and offer their low carb menu via counter service.

The cafes will serve only non-alcoholic low carb beverages. The expansion into low carb cafes comes at a time carb conscious consumers are cutting back on restaurant visits because they can't find low-carb meals they want. "We are making it easier not to cheat" said Brad Saltzman, Co-Founder of Pure Foods, LLC. "No bread, no potatoes, no potato chips -- all the things I used to love to eat, I just don't eat anymore," said Saltzman, who lost 25 lbs on the Atkins Diet. Pure Foods, LLC is a privately held Beverly Hills based company with low carb retail stores in Santa Monica and Beverly Hills, CA with 12 California locations opening in 2004.

Nearly one in four Americans -- inspired by the wildly popular Atkins diet plan -- are at least testing low-carb diets. According to a recent CNN report, 25 million people in the United States are currently practicing the Atkins Diet. Sales of all low-carb products are expected to pass $15 billion this year.

Also see: chocolate carrot cake

Author Notes:

James Sparks contributes and publishes news editorial to http://www.1st-in-steaks.com.  Great tips on buying top quality meats, steaks and seafood from the finest ranchers and butchers.