Meet Lisa and Ned Heath of Intentional Foods Cafe and Market in Mesa

Today we’d like to introduce you to Lisa Heath, Ned Heath.

So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
At only six months old, our middle daughter, Sarah, was diagnosed with a peanut allergy. At the time, we didn’t realize how serious it was, nor were we educated on life-threatening food allergies. But, we’ve learned all too well just how scary and isolating having food allergies can be. Everything changed for us the day she took one bite of a granola bar at preschool. One bite that almost led to us losing our daughter.

How do we keep her safe? How do we keep this from happening again? Our questions of how we were going to help kids like Sarah and families like ours quickly turned into “What IF?”

What IF there was a safe place to eat? What IF you could have everything on the menu? What IF you didn’t have to eat at a separate table What IF we could gather again with families and friends? What IF we could educate our community about food allergies? What IF?

With Mama Lisa’s 10+ years in the restaurant business and Chef Neds 15 years of working in kitchens and culinary training, we decided we were uniquely prepared to be the change.

So, we got out of the corporate business and decided to give this our all and open a cafe that could accommodate a worry-free dining environment, and give people with food allergies and celiac disease a sense of normalcy, that we all miss out on when you have to worry about a life-threatening reaction to food.

With a desire to provide our community with allergy-friendly meals and foster an inclusive dining experience, we created Intentional Foods Cafe & Market.

We ensure that every product is manufactured in facilities that we can trust, down to the salt & pepper. This is the part that took the longest, as most foods are made in shared equipment with allergens. We have a binder behind our register so that we can be transparent with all ingredients and their sourcing. In our retail market, you will find our favorite allergy-friendly products so our customers can have a convenient meal and grab some safe snacks for the road.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
We hit the books trying to find spices, noodles, bread, meats, flours, all things needed to have a successful restaurant menu that would be allergy friendly. This ended up taking us almost two years, putting together a menu that we could offer where all ingredients could safely be sourced.

We can’t use large distributors, so it’s a struggle. We work with many small allergy business owners to pull enough product to ensure safety.

The construction was quite the project. Not having experience in the necessary requirements for a restaurant was quite the learning curve. We know now, make sure the hood in the kitchen is already installed! Make sure the grease trap is already there! That alone will save us a ton!

Staffing is also hard because we can’t hire ordinary workers; they must understand how significant a mistake in an order can be for our trusting clientele.

Please tell us about Intentional foods Cafe and Market.
We are the only allergy friendly place to eat where people with celiac disease, dairy, peanut, egg, soy, seafood, tree nut, coconut, or sesame allergy can eat 100% worry-free.

We have a beautiful community that has come out in full force to support us, and most come 2-3 times per week.

Chef and I try to meet each guest welcome them and thank them for supporting our business.

We love the community that is forming and the allergy family support we get to witness when the tables start to talk to each other.

We love to see grandparents have special time with their grandchildren with food allergies that never get those “special “ dates that most kids get, due to food restrictions.

We love seeing allergy babes take a bite off of mom and dad or even little sisters food to share or just to taste because they CAN.

We love telling allergy kids they can eat anything in the market or on our menu — even dessert.

We love that moms have a place to grab a quick cupcake or donut that is safe for their child so they don’t have to stress the night before and bake into the night just so their child can be included.

We cry with grateful allergy parents DAILY.

It’s emotional stuff, our bodies get tired, our feet hurt, but our hearts are full. ️

What role has luck had in your life and business?
We feel blessed by the support we have received.

We don’t feel it’s luck.

We feel like it is a need that we serve, and our community is embracing us and grateful, which in turn just brings us back to gratitude as well.

We feel we are doing exactly what we are supposed to be doing while raising awareness along the way that food allergies are serious, life-threatening and life-altering, but at IF, you can take a breathe and not feel the burden or worry, if even just for one meal.

Contact Info:

• Address: 1837 W Guadalupe Rd #103
  Mesa, AZ 85202
• Website: Intentionalfoods.org
• Phone: 480.264.7002
• Instagram: Intentionalfoods
• Facebook: Intentional foods
• Twitter: Intentional foods

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