I am not much on social media, but I have been advised to send out more frequent communications to connect to the Tangerine Community. It is not in my nature to blast you with promo emails, so I am preferring to take a “speak from the heart” approach.
So here it goes:
As the pandemic and all its associated life and business changes have occurred, I have been reflecting on what TANGERINE IS and what it means to me, the founder/owner/chef. I would like to share the story of the Tangerine journey.
Where Tangerine originated, Part 1:
I began working in restaurants at age 15 and loved the fast pace and comradery. I had no idea nor intention in these early years that restaurants would be my career, it was just a fun paid job.
However, after 12+ years working a variety of restaurant positions, I was at a juncture in my life. I felt an internal pressure to start my “career path”, while also struggling with my health. I had depressive episodes, as well as persistent “gut issues”. I was a young man searching for my path, and during this time I realized the diet I consumed seemed intertwined with my mood and energy.
Around this time, I began working as a server in a “health food” restaurant. Being around my fellow health conscious workers and customers I explored my diet further. I began preparing and cooking much of what I consumed, and indeed there was a connection to my wellbeing. Once I got out of the cycle of processed and starchy foods for a few months, I was healing. And when I fell back into the old diet patterns, I felt it fast. I remember eating a huge slice of NY style pizza and just feeling downright awful!
The chef at that “health food” restaurant turned me onto the culinary school he graduated from – Natural Gourmet Institute – in Manhattan, NY. I did my research and all that this Institute stood for was in harmony with what I was experiencing: that a plant based, health supportive and nutrition focused diet works. A year later, I enrolled to this Institute, and my healthy culinary life began.
Since those times, I set my career goal to open a diet conscious restaurant that truly embodies the word “restaurant” – from French meaning “to restore or refresh” – as that was exactly what I was doing to myself, through my diet knowledge. Eventually I achieved my goal, and that restaurant was Arugula, opened in 2009 next door to the original North Boulder Tangerine location. Tangerine came along in 2011, and I will save that story for the next edition of “The Story of the Tangerine Journey.”
Link to Part 2: click here