Plantonic Cafe’s gluten- and dairy-free menu was inspired by owner’s health journey
Tanya Fransen always loved going to restaurants. She loves cooking. She actually enjoys grocery shopping. If it has to do with food, she’s a fan.
Then a few years ago while running her own salon, Fransen started having health issues. After a lot of searching and doctor visits, she learned she had a long list of allergies. She had to change her diet, cutting out gluten and dairy. Going out to eat became trickier. She began playing with her own recipes, focusing on organic, raw, vegan, plant-based and options that are gluten- and dairy-free. She’d take her treats and share them everywhere she went. The feedback was good, and she knew she wanted to do more.
Fransen found a space in Hartford, where she went to middle and high school, and opened Plantonic Cafe, 46 N. Johnson St., in the lower level of Lotus Be Well. She offers a small selection of retail goods plus a daily menu that includes juices, smoothies, smoothie bowls, and a rotating mix of salads, soups, snacks and desserts.
Plantonic Cafe is open 6:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday, 6:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesday, 7:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Thursday, 6:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday, and 6:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday.
Fransen talked with us about her food journey and how she came to open her own cafe.
What defines her menu
We do raw, vegan, plant-based, soy-free, corn-free, preservative-free and no refined sugars. We only use maple syrup, dates or honey for 95% of things, though every once in a while it might be coconut sugar. The only thing we cook is soup. We have a lot of grab and go, things in the cooler. One of the reasons I designed grab and go was because people are busy, and a lot of people, especially women, don't like to sit in a restaurant alone. I want everybody to be comfortable.
Another thing happens when kids come in, the kids who haven’t been able to have something in a restaurant. They say, “I can have anything?” It happens with adults, too. People ask, what is gluten-free? All of it. What is dairy-free? All of it.
Her family and her health helped her be a better cook
Growing up I didn’t get a lot of homemade meals. It was a generation of TV dinners, fast food. When I was somewhere where somebody made a homemade meal, I found that really cool.
I first learned how to cook. Then I realized I wanted to cook healthier, homemade and a better version. I didn’t know there was a whole other level to health until I had my own health issues. I had a big organic garden, made my own baby food. I was cooking at home. To me, food is an obsession. ... Today I live the same lifestyle at home as I do at the cafe. I don’t eat gluten or dairy. I have a sensitivity to them.
How she changed the way she ate
It was a slow progression. I had anxiety, PMS, joint pain, mentally I was not myself, a lot of stomach issues. I started getting hives on my lips and eyelids, pain in my side. ... I saw my doctor. I was allergic to over 75 items, most of them being fruits. I am going to do things as natural as possible. I saw a holistic naturopathic doctor...
I learned real quick I wasn’t going to be able to eat out. It can be an isolating experience. You’re not sure where to start. You feel very overwhelmed. I can't have dairy and gluten.
How do you start? You read ingredient lists. You learn what is in the ingredients. I learned really quickly how many fillers and preservatives and alternatives are hidden in our foods. I didn't eat a lot of packaged foods, but I was buying wheat pretzels and wheat bread and pasta. I was slowly making myself more sick. ... I learned from there about how our foods were being sprayed and grown.
This is about options, not limits
That holistic practitioner taught me about my body. "This is what you eliminate. This is what you eat instead." It wasn’t just, "You can’t." It opened a whole new world of learning. Every night I was learning and reading, and watching documentaries. I already had the food as a passion. Then I learned how foods heal the body.
Feedback from others fuels her passion for raw, vegan and plant-based
I was always a person who cooked. Whenever I cooked or baked, I brought food, whether for the basketball team, grandma's house, the salon where I worked. Then my health changed. I had to learn how to do that differently.
I started learning how to cook more raw desserts, which is so amazing. It is so different from baking. Learning I could make raw, vegan cheesecake or a carrot cake, there was nothing like that out here. Wherever I took my foods, people loved it. The more I talked about my health journey, the more I wanted to inspire people.
From home cooking to opening her cafe
Lotus Be Well, my (current) neighbor, contacted me. They said, "We bought a building. We’d love to have a juice and smoothie bar. Would you like to join us?"
My husband was like, "You need to have a cafe." He saw the difference in my health and how passionate I was. So here we are. My little sprout on my hat is meant to be there. It is to plant a seed on health, and food for thought. Hopefully people go home and it turns into them wanting more knowledge or turning their own kitchen into a place of learning.
Why her menu is always evolving
We do change our menu regularly. Our constants are our smoothies, juices and smoothie bowls. The funny thing is I was never into juicing or smoothies, but in the end, that's how we started. I wanted to start with a menu that only had six items. I didn’t actually want a menu. All the restaurant suppliers, all the people in the industry said, "You need a menu." I wanted a soup of the day, a salad of the day and a whatever. I would change it. I like a lot of variety.
My own biggest letdown is going to a restaurant and they are out of something when it is the only thing I can eat on a menu. My promise to myself is we would not run out of anything for anyone ever. We typically don’t. I want to be there for people who need us. We will customize ahead on special requests of desserts, but every day we can customize any smoothie, smoothie bowl, juice, on demand. I want people (with gluten or dairy dietary restrictions) to know they can come in and be comfortable and not just sit there and drink water or hot tea. I’ve done that.
Her bestseller
Basic energy balls, which are just peanut butter, honey, oatmeal, chocolate chips. We sold 15 containers of them yesterday. This is one that people love.
Her everyday customer
We like to say we're for everybody, the person who wants to be more health conscious or already is, and the second element is people who are struggling with food allergies. I want to make them feel like they have a home. ...
If somebody comes in and they're not in any of those avenues, I just try to make them feel comfortable. We try to do samples. It is about encouraging people to take those first steps. Sometimes wives come in for lunch and bring things home for their husbands. Then they come back. "Well now he wants the peanut butter pie; I have to get two." The way to anybody’s heart is through their stomach, it is true. You're not going to come back if it tastes icky.
How she finds and creates recipes
Other restaurants are something that can fuel me. I try something and want to go home and try to re-create things. I once found a raw lasagna in a Mimi Kirk cookbook. I made it and it was amazing. Then Cafe Manna (in Brookfield) had a raw lasagna and it was amazing. Those little tidbits started it all. The more I looked for this, the more it was there.
One thing that drives her forward every day
My husband's biggest internal question was, "Do we have a niche? Is this something people want?" Well, if I can't eat (these things), there are other people who can't eat these things as well. That’s why I am here. That’s why I opened Plantonic Cafe.
Fork. Spoon. Life. explores the everyday relationship that local notables have with food. To suggest future personalities to profile, email clewis@journalsentinel.com.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Plantonic Cafe’s gluten- and dairy-free menu inspired by owner’s health journey
