At Evan's Organic Eatery in St. Paul, good food that's good for you is a priority

Evan’s Organic Eatery recently debuted in the St. Paul skyway (Alliance Bank Building Food Court, 56 E. Sixth St.) and serves up whole food, vegan dishes, meaty soup, salad and sandwich options for lunch.

We chatted with Patrick Schuna, co-owner with Leonard McQuen and chef Edward Hayes, about how the lunch spot came to be and more.

What’s your first food memory? A rhubarb crisp that my mom used to make. We would run into the back yard and pull the rhubarb from the garden. That was a cool memory.

What did you want to be when you grew up? An astronaut. That didn’t pan out.

What was your first job in food? The first thing I did was pick strawberries for a farmer. I grew up in the country and I would ride my bike to Withrow Berry Farm. We called it the strawberry patch.

How did you wind up in the restaurant business for good? I do insurance as well. Mainly I’m a serial entrepreneur. I could list off all kinds of things that I’m doing, but I’ve always wanted to own a restaurant. I was always interested. And same with the other two guys. We’ve been friends for a long time. Edward has been a chef for a long time. Leonard has worked in catering and as a server at restaurants. It’s something that we talked about for years.

We were going to do it with a friend of ours and he passed away several years ago. Our restaurant group is named DLG Restaurant Company as a tribute to him, DaJuan Lamar Gibson. As for the name of the restaurant, it’s named after my son.

What’s your favorite dish on your menu right now? I’m a vegan myself and so is Leonard. For me, it’s the vegan mushroom wild rice soup. Before becoming a vegan, I was a fan like most Minnesotans of chicken wild rice soup and this is every bit as good to me. It has such a large flavor profile that it can do without the meat. It’s between that and the cucumber melon salad. It has cucumber, watermelon, cantaloupe, lemon, honey and mint — it’s really refreshing and a good combination of flavors. We describe it as “summer in a cup.”

What’s the last thing you cooked at home? Spaghetti.

If you had to eat or drink only five things for the rest of your life, what would they be? Peaches. Grilled cheese sandwich, vegan cheese, of course, with tomato soup. Probably spaghetti — I eat it all the time. And stir-fry. Fajitas.

What’s next? Catering. We really want to get healthy food items out there in front of people and make them realize they’re not overly expensive and probably the most expensive thing you can put in your body is bad food when you look at the health costs. We’re also looking at getting our website (organiceatery.com) up and running as soon as possible. And then we’re going to be at Veg Fest on Sept. 9 at Como Regional Park in St. Paul. It’s all vegan dishes.

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