The SassyScoops.com ladies were pretty excited to check out Blue Lemon. With all the buzz about that restaurant we had to see if it really lived up to the hype.
Blue Lemon is a restaurant in north Utah County that serves a healthy menu without sacrificing anything in the taste department. Their food is clean, all natural with no preservatives and never fried. I heard whisperings the butternut squash soup is to die for and the vegetable lasagna is unbelievable. We shall see…
Blue Lemon is located at
11073 North Alpine Highway
Highland, UT 84003
801.756.7993
(I was told the blog’s first post is TODAY and the site will have posts at least three times a week and feature fabulous recipes, tips from their chef and awesome discounts for readers!)
Lychelle, the owner of Blue Lemon, is a friend of mine so I was able to interview her and ask her all the questions I really wanted to know about Blue Lemon. It gave me a great “behind the scenes” look into owning a restaurant.
Why did you decide to open a restaurant? What is the story behind Blue Lemon? What are your dreams for Blue Lemon?
We decided to start Blue Lemon because we got tired of trying to eat healthy. Not that there aren’t a lot of options and restaurants out there, but we found it became increasingly difficult to find those healthy options for myself and especially for my kids. We wanted to create a place that would suit the whole family. We found that anytime we were going someplace healthier, we were either leaving the kids at home or taking the kids somewhere else to eat, which usually meant fast food. So thinking a restaurant might be fun (what were we thinking!) we decided to try and open up something that was healthy for the whole family and so delicious even kids would eat it. The other big thing for us was to be able to teach people how to eat “clean.” That’s why we decided to put in a demo kitchen, which I think will be a great success as time goes on.
The biggest question I get asked is whether or not Blue Lemon means something. It doesn’t. We were just thinking of fun names to call it so people would think “fresh” and “healthy” when they heard the name. The funny thing is I think we succeeded in that, however in reality lemons turn blue when they go bad, so it actually doesn’t mean that at all. Kind of funny in the end.
We are hoping to take Blue Lemon more places. We’ve had a lot of people interested in franchising, but as of now we’d like to have owner-operated multiple locations. We’ll see what actually happens though.
What has been the most challenging part of opening a restaurant? What have you learned about yourself in opening Blue Lemon?
The most challenging part of opening the restaurant…to answer honestly (but you may not want to print this) is the constant comments you get from people! And I’m not talking about the positive comments either. They’re the “trying to be helpful but really not at all helpful” comments. For example, the one I received today complained about the size of our fish tacos. Apparently somebody’s husband doesn’t roll out the door when he eats our fish tacos so she’s worried we’re going to under! It’s very funny really.
We get a lot of comments where people say they want us to stick around for a while so they tell all their friends and neighbors and everyone, and it sounds positive, but then they say “because I just don’t want you to fail, or go under or something like that.” We have a problem in this area with the notion that restaurants fail up here. We’ve had about five different restaurants in the past five years or so come in and go out for various reasons. Most of the problem is the high rent and not enough capital to sustain the business, so they assume everyone is the same way.
We have far exceeded our expectations and hope to stay current on what our customers want so that won’t happen. But really we’re not going anywhere for a very long time! Anyway, moral of the story is, wwe do our best within our healthy eating concept and hope people like it but realize that we can’t please everyone.
What has been the most rewarding thing in opening up the Blue Lemon? What aspect of owning a restaurant do you enjoy the most?
Selfishly we just wanted to have a great place to eat in our neighborhood. That’s definitely the best part of owning a restaurant is having amazing food cooked for you all the time! Trying out things and experimenting on different food is fun, too. The people you meet are amazing and it is a wonderful feeling being able to create a place for people to have a good, sustainable job in this economy. That is also very rewarding.
How do you believe using social media (e.g., blogging, twittering, using Facebook) has helped your restaurant become a success?
Let’s see, I actually don’t think it was until we started twittering that we really spread awareness about Blue Lemon. There’s been a lot of talk about Blue Lemon in various parts of the state. I even had my cousin email me from California the other day saying she heard some ladies in her ward talking about Blue Lemon. We’ve had a lot of people come into the restaurant because of what they’ve read online somewhere. It’s been a wonderfully useful marketing tool for us to use, without spending marketing dollars. It’s great!
Wednesday: Get the real “scoop” on Blue Lemon from the SassyScoops.com girls.
Friday: Learn how you can win a $50 gift certificate to Blue Lemon.
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