Erica Welton used to be a Costco food buyer for 14 years. Now, she's going organic, that is, by managing a restaurant called The Organic Coup.
Welton started her organic mission by buying majority of organic and unprocessed foods for her own household. The fruits of her labor came when she first opened her Organic Coup restaurant last month in Pleasanton, California. According to Entrepreneur.com, Welton sees herself opening 25 more Organic Coup restaurants over the next year and two months.
Aside from the West Coast, Welton plans to open branches of her restaurants in Las Vegas, New York City, Austin and Chicago.
Welton narrated to The Business Insider how she came about with her journey into owning a new restaurant.
"We saw this huge shift happening at Costco with people purchasing more and more organic food."
Welton went on to share her surprises of owning America's first organic fast food restaurant by saying:
"I didn't really understand how few restaurants were certified, I was shocked to find out that we were actually America's first certified-organic fast-food chain."
According to Nrn.com, The Organic Coup has been certified by the California Certified Organic Farmers, or CCOF. CCOF is an agency under the accreditation of the U.S. Department of Agriculture National Organic Program.
The Organic Coup's specialty for its customers is spicy fried chicken. Environmentally-friendly air-chilled chicken fried in coconut oil is what customers should expect this dish to be made up of. Welton said the oil used for this chicken is one of the most expensive ones. However, it has good plant-based fats, instead of cholesterol. And, the chicken is rich in Vitamin A.
The Organic Coup is more expensive than most of its other counterparts. The fried chicken sandwich is priced at $8.99. A chicken sandwich at Chick-Fil-A costs less than $4.
