Latest news with #Celiac
Yahoo
28-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
More closures in St. Paul, with brewery and American pub the latest to call it quits
Minnesota's only gluten-free brewery and a Mac-Groveland bar are the latest businesses set to close in St. Paul. Coming in a week in which the Apostle Supper Club announced its closure, citing the decline of downtown St. Paul among its reasons, Burning Brothers Brewery and Chip's Clubhouse are also on the way out. Burning Brothers Brewery, located at 1750 Thomas Ave. W. near the Hamline-Midway YMCA, confirmed that its final day of taproom operations will be Saturday, May 10. The brewery was opened in 2014 by former Minnesota Renaissance Festival performers Thom Foss and Dane Breimhorst, the latter of whom has Celiac disease. "After much consideration, deliberation, discussion, and many difficult heartfelt conversations, we have come to the incredibly heart-wrenching conclusion that we unfortunately cannot continue operations," they said. "The factors affecting this decision are numerous, complex, and varied, and we have fought hard to avoid reaching this point, but alas, the day we had hoped to avoid has arrived." Another closure, albeit a quieter one, is Chip's Clubhouse, the American pub at 272 Snelling Ave. S. A sign on the door announced the abrupt closure, but there has been no official announcement on the business's social media pages or website. "Sadly, we've made the difficult decision to permanently close our doors. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your incredible support over the years. We will cherish the memories made within these walls," the sign reads. Chip's opened in 2021 initially under an ownership team that included pastry chef Tara Coleman, who owns Hot Hands Pie & Biscuit next door. The venue was sold in February 2024 to chef Nik Donaker. Businesses at the Grand and Snelling intersection are facing disruptions from road construction, which began in April.
Miami Herald
14-05-2025
- Business
- Miami Herald
Another fast-food, casual dining chain files Chapter 11 bankruptcy
People who eat special diets seem to have a blind spot when it comes to what other people want to eat. For many years, for example, I ate gluten-free, thinking that gluten was causing me some dietary issues, During that period, many chains, including Dunkin', added gluten-free products, and nearly all of them quietly let the products disappear. While it's feasible for high-end restaurants to stock gluten-free pasta and charge an added fee, for other chains, it's not so simple. Related: Target CEO admits a major mistake amid boycotts from customers People who can eat gluten don't want to eat gluten-free pizza, even if it's acceptably okay, because regular pizza is always better. "About one-third of Americans say that due to health concerns, they want to reduce the amount of gluten they consume, or eliminate it altogether," according to NYU Lagone. Many of those people may be misguided, as the actual rate of Celiac disease sits at around 1%. That's too small a number to build a restaurant chain around, and efforts to entice gluten eaters with gluten-free items have never worked. Don't miss the move: Subscribe to TheStreet's free daily newsletter The same applies to every form of healthy eating, and it explains why yet another well-intentioned restaurant chain has filed for bankruptcy. Image source: Shutterstock Only about 1% of Americans follow a vegan diet. "About 3% of the population is vegetarian (including vegans) all the time, and about 5% always eat vegetarian or vegan meals when eating out," according to a Harris Poll. Offering vegetarian options is relatively easy. Even steakhouses have salad and can make plates of side dishes to replace a main course. Any restaurant can offer naturally vegetarian and even vegan options using existing menu items. Building an entire menu around vegan cuisine assumes that non-vegans will opt to eat at your restaurant. That just does not happen in the numbers needed to support restaurants serving a niche population. It's a fundamental flaw that every vegan restaurant tries to explain away. Planta, which just filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the District of Delaware, made the same mistake. More bankruptcy: Iconic auto repair chain franchise files Chapter 11 bankruptcyPopular beer brand closes down and files Chapter 7 bankruptcyPopular vodka and gin brand files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy "At Planta, we see plants differently," the company shared on its website. "Led by Founder and CEO Steven Salm and Co-founder and Executive Chef David Lee, Planta was born in 2016 to expand the accessibility and acceptability of plant-based dining; dining as it should be - an unguilty pleasure." That sounds plausible if you already live a vegan lifestyle. It's a tougher sell to people who eat broader diets. It's already hard to convince people to try new things. Planta had to do that twice, as the company sells traditional vegan food like salads, as well as vegan takes on sushi, meat-based dishes, and pastas. It's a daring menu in the first place that also happens to be vegan. That's a lot to overcome. Planta has a noble mission, but its philosophy shows that it really does not understand how much its menu limits its potential audience. "We believe in the power of plants to change the world. For our health, for the health of our communities, and for the health of our planet - plants are the key. In everything we do, we seek to understand, experiment with, and maximize the power of plants to nourish, inspire, and sustain. We strive to operate in a paperless and reduced-waste environment, eliminating paper cheques, printed materials, and one-time-use water bottles and coffee cups," it shared. That all sounds nice, but a restaurant that sells food that most consumers need to be talked into is a very tough business. Planta locations have not closed and the company does hope to continue operations. That may be an uphill fight. Related: Popular brewery, beer brand closes all locations without warning In its bankruptcy fight, Planta showed $50,000 to $100,000 in assets and $10 million to $50 million in liabilities. It key liabilities include landlords, food vendors, and service providers. Planta operates restaurants in multiple Florida locations including West Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale, and Miami. It also has restaurants in Atlanta, New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, Washington D.C., and Toronto. The Arena Media Brands, LLC THESTREET is a registered trademark of TheStreet, Inc.
Yahoo
01-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
St. Paul brewery Burning Brothers, state's only gluten-free beer maker, to shut down May 10
Burning Brothers, the state's first and only gluten-free brewery, is shutting down after 11 years in St. Paul. Their last day will be May 10. 'The factors affecting this decision are numerous, complex, and varied, and we have fought hard to avoid reaching this point, but alas, the day we had hoped to avoid has arrived,' co-owners Dane Breimhorst and Thom Foss wrote in a social media announcement. The pair have been friends since they were teenagers and had long planned to open a brewery together, but in the middle of planning it in the early 2010s, Breimhorst was diagnosed with Celiac disease, a strong autoimmune reaction to gluten. So they tweaked their plans, learned how to brew beer without gluten and set up shop in the Hamline-Midway neighborhood in 2014. In their 20s, both Breimhorst and Foss performed as Renaissance Festival fire-breathers — hence the name of the brewery — and revived the trick to celebrate the brewery's fifth and tenth anniversaries. Out of some 9,900 breweries across the country, only around a dozen are currently dedicated to producing exclusively gluten-free beer. With the closures of Burning Brothers and another brewery in Michigan last year, the only gluten-free brewery remaining in the Midwest is ALT Brew in Madison. Burning Brothers's taproom will be open regular hours (4 to 10 p.m. Tues/Wed/Thurs, 4 to 11 p.m. Fri, 1 to 11 p.m. Sat, 1 to 7 p.m. Sun, closed Mon) through Saturday, May 10. Burning Brothers Brewery: 1750 W. Thomas Ave; 651-444-8882; St. Paul: Sharrett's Liquors to briefly close as longtime owners retire There's a new kind of American whiskey, and distillers are buzzing about it Dirty sodas: The sweet, creamy phenomenon taking over America Your tariff questions about wine, answered Hemp-derived products boosting sales at Minnesota's municipal liquor stores
Yahoo
12-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
This beloved Tacoma restaurant has new owners. If you haven't noticed, that's a good thing
Over the Moon Cafe, perhaps Tacoma's most romantic restaurant and one of its smallest with just 36 oft-filled seats, quietly changed hands last year. If you hadn't noticed — and Over the Moon is the kind of place that some people return to several times in a year to celebrate — owners new and old did their part. Unrecognizable transition was very much the point, explained founder Deanna Harris-Bender in a February phone call. Importantly, it was part of the paperwork, but 'I really wanted these guys to be successful,' she said. 'Sometimes when people hear about these things, they tend to shy away until the dust settles. I didn't want to do them any disfavors.' Both parties agreed to refrain from making an official announcement until the timing seemed right. 'I guess the cat's out of the bag!' said Daniel Espinosa, who purchased the Opera Alley haunt with his wife Jennifer, in a recent phone call. 'We didn't want anybody to know, especially when Over the Moon has been a staple in the community for the last 23 years,' he explained. 'My fear was for patrons to get notified that the restaurant had been sold off, after building an emotional connection with Deanna, and for them to be like, 'Well, there goes Over the Moon.'' People have a penchant for viewing change in a negative light, he added, at least when it comes to something as intimate as a restaurant — maybe even more so for one with such a hearty reputation as a date-night haven and an anniversary dinner magnet, or celebration of any size or style, for almost a quarter-century. Espinosa has worked as a chef and in corporate food management for just as long: 'I've been a chef for 23 years now. It's all I've done since I was a teenager, and I never thought about owning a restaurant or opening one, to be quite honest. If I did … it would have to be one that was a sweetheart of the town.' He and Jennifer moved to Puyallup several years ago. In casual conversation with a barista at a coffee shop, they asked for recommendations on weekend activities in the area. 'She said, 'Oh my gosh, you have to try the cutest little spot in Tacoma. It's called Over the Moon Cafe,'' recalled Espinosa. He perused the menu online — common for a chef but also his personal needs as a person with Celiac disease. Indeed, Harris-Bender's menu has somewhat surreptitiously catered to gluten-free diners for more than a decade. She herself is not Celiac, but after a lengthy battle, she was finally diagnosed with Hashimoto's thyroiditis, which led her to the Autoimmune Paleo Diet. Over the Moon has eschewed labels, instead allowing the dishes to speak for themselves. It's why the house lasagna, assembled with thinly sliced butternut squash, is listed in quotation marks and why the berry cheesecake-meets-mousse dessert has a paragraph-long description. (The secret, sort of: coconut butter and ground dates!) So the Espinosas made a reservation. Almost immediately, 'We kinda looked at each other,' said Daniel Espinosa. The food was great, the service kind and attentive, the ambiance just wonderful. 'We became regulars.' Soon they had celebrated birthdays including their daughter's 18th, their own anniversary and just your usual date night. 'When we found out it was for sale, it was an immediate yes,' said Espinosa. The new owners trained with Harris-Bender for a few months, while the longtime sous chef, Michael, moved into a leading role. Harris-Bender eventually dipped out, but her daughter, who served and managed the front-of-house for many years, stayed through last October before returning to school and moving to the East Coast. Her son still works in the kitchen. 'My kids grew up there,' said Harris-Bender. 'It was a bit heartwrenching, but there's a shelf life, right? That's what it felt like for me … It's a young person's game. Small restaurants are exhausting! They just are.' When she opened Over the Moon in 2001, she was in her 40s. She now recognizes that time in her life as 'my midlife crisis,' she said with a laugh. It was her first ownership adventure but a return to the kitchen after working in restaurants as a teenager before moving into the legal field and running a home-based business for a spell. As her kids grew up, she started searching for the answer to a question some know early and others maybe never find: 'What do I really want to do when I grow up?' Tacoma, she continued, 'was in such a cool place' at that time. Primo Grill had just opened, a truly seasonal, local, chef-driven restaurant. (That mainstay also recently was sold to new, younger owners.) Over the Moon has likewise withstood the tests of time, garnering a loyal fan base and a reputation as a must-visit for out-of-towners, too. The COVID-19 pandemic definitely complicated its future, as Harris-Bender, now in her mid-60s, began contemplating her next steps. She and her husband are avid pilots; they have since moved to Sequim, from where they now frequently take off in a Cessna 180 Skywagon, nicknamed JulietLima. (In July, she and a friend will compete in the 2025 Air Race Classic against 50 other women, flying from Washington to Alabama. The nonprofit race was established in 1929 and supports women in flight.) The restaurant was for sale for almost two years, but none of the offers seemed right. You hope to find buyers like the Espinosas, said Harris-Bender — who appreciate what you built and want to carry the torch, not tear it down. Astute observers might have noticed an unusual Instagram post just before Memorial Day last year. At first blush it was a restaurant-anniversary post, but it featured Harris-Bender, who didn't post frequently and rarely was in front of the camera. 'I kept all your notes — years and years of notes: 23 years of your experiences, your joys, your thoughts, your prayers. Business cards from businesses come and gone,' she said. 'It's amazing that Tacoma and beyond created this, in this little hole in the wall, and I love all that you guys have brought to me personally, to my crew, and to all the guests that come in and get to read your notes and look at your silly pictures. Thanks for sharing with us, all of this, all of these years, and here's to 23 more.' It was actually a goodbye, admitted Harris-Bender when I spoke with her earlier this year. The love-note tradition began organically, as guests started scribbling on napkins or an old receipt in their wallet and slipping it into a decorative box on one table. That box became several and the notes overflowing. 'To me it was always such an authentic piece of people that came into the restaurant … because that's really what I intended for the restaurant to be,' said Harris-Bender. 'When people get what you're trying to do, it's an amazing kind of feeling. It was about the food, but it was very much about just having a safe place for people to come and just be authentic.' The Espinosas have enacted few changes. The biggest might be the menu layout itself — now just one page instead of several, but featuring a similar number and variety of dishes with some new additions such as angel-hair arrabitata and prosciutto di Parma with burrata and pickled cantaloupe. Most of all, said Daniel, the 'same incredible ambiance' is here to stay. ▪ 709 Opera Alley (Court C), Tacoma, 253-284-3722, ▪ Tuesday-Thursday 4:30-8:30 p.m., Friday-Saturday 4:30-9:30 p.m. ▪ Details: new owners at Opera Alley mainstay, reservations recommended
USA Today
10-02-2025
- Health
- USA Today
Everything to know about cystic fibrosis and what causes it
Breathing disorders are common in the U.S. with conditions like COPD affecting some 7% of the population and asthma affecting another 10%. Digestive conditions like GERD, acid reflux, Celiac disease and IBS negatively impact countless millions more. The genetic disorder cystic fibrosis is unique because it can cause both breathing and digestive problems. Some 40,000 people in the U.S. currently have it, "though this is likely an underestimate as many patients may have mild forms of the condition and remain undiagnosed," says Dr. Ashwin Basavaraj, system chief of pulmonary medicine at NYC Health + Hospitals. Here's what cystic fibrosis is, what causes it and how it's usually treated once it has been diagnosed. What is cystic fibrosis (CF) disease? Cystic fibrosis (CF) is a progressive genetic disease that adversely affects a person's lungs, pancreas and other vital organs, says Dr. Michael Boyle, president and CEO of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation in Bethesda, Maryland. The disease impacts the lungs by clogging airways with sticky, thick mucus, which traps bacteria and other germs and sometimes leads to inflammation, respiratory infections and even respiratory failure. Need a break? Play the USA TODAY Daily Crossword Puzzle. The buildup of mucus in the pancreas can also prevent the release of digestive enzymes that help the body absorb food, "leading to digestive abnormalities, malnutrition and stunted growth," says Basavaraj. Other common symptoms of CF include coughing attacks (often with phlegm), shortness of breath, greasy and bulky stools, rectal prolapse and constipation. "People with CF are also more susceptible to sinus and respiratory infections and often require persistent use of antibiotics, leading to concerns over antibiotic resistance," adds Boyle. CF can also affect the liver, sometimes causing liver disease, as well as impact the reproductive system, sometimes "causing infertility in men," says Basavaraj. Did you see this?Nearly 1 in 10 Americans have asthma. Here's what causes it. What causes cystic fibrosis? Is cystic fibrosis genetic? Cystic fibrosis is caused by mutations in a gene known as the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR), says Basavaraj. He explains that these mutations eventually cause a protein imbalance and water and salt in the body's cells to surface, "resulting in mucus becoming thick and sticky, and difficulty clearing airways and other organs." In other words, people with CF are born with the disease, inheriting a copy of this gene from each parent, says Boyle. In case you missed:At 25 she found out she had the breast cancer gene. Now, she's grieving motherhood. How is cystic fibrosis treated? While there is no cure for CF, there are multiple treatment options. Basavaraj says such options include bronchodilators to help open airways; mucus-thinning medications to help clear up the sticky substance; high-frequency chest wall oscillation (HFCWO) devices to help clear mucus from the lungs; and pancreatic enzymes to help with digestion and nutrient absorption. Moreover, "there are currently five FDA-approved CFTR modulator oral therapies on the market that each address the underlying cause of cystic fibrosis," adds Boyle. These were developed to be effective against specific mutations and more modulator therapies are in development. Despite the many advantages these therapies provide, "approximately 10% of individuals cannot benefit from modulators due to their genetic mutations or ability to tolerate the treatment," says Boyle. Because of this, he says, "many people living with CF are still waiting for their breakthrough, which is why we are urgently pursuing efforts to ensure there are treatments available to them."
