Spreading the Yumm!

Media Credit: Daniel Bachhuber Eco-entrepeneur Mark Beauchamp examines the artist rendering as his newest store on East Broadway nears completion. [Click to enlarge]

When University senior Alison Friedman searched Eugene for a restaurant that served vegetarian food, she got hooked on Café Yumm! and its offerings. Now she says she eats there two or three times every week.

But students won't have to walk to the corner of 18th Avenue and Willamette Street anymore - currently the closest Café Yumm! to the University. Mark and Mary Ann Beauchamp, co-founders of the restaurant, will open another Café Yumm! the second week of this month at 730 E. Broadway.

From humble beginnings, Café Yumm! is now hoping to expand throughout the state by franchising the restaurant, which allows each location to be independently owned and operated under the Café Yumm! company.

The East Broadway location has previously been home to an Elmer's breakfast restaurant, a bar and grill and an Izzy's pizza parlor. The new restaurant will feature a conference room for meetings, a semi-private room for events and a production cooking area.

The Beauchamps spent about $250,000 remodeling the building, planting new vegetation, paving the parking lot and buying new restaurant equipment, Mark Beauchamp said.

The building now has environmentally friendly features, Beauchamp said, including tables made from compressed recycled paper. The building will offer wireless Internet, and it has 23 electrical outlets for computers.

Café Yumm!, which started in Eugene 10 years ago, is known locally for its simple entrées, including soups, salads, wraps, sandwiches and Yumm! Bowls - a layered rice and beans dish.

Mark Beauchamp said his food is always fresh.

"We make it," he said. "It's never frozen, preserved or deep fried."

The Beauchamps started the Café Yumm! concept through a different deli they owned in the 1990s. The couple opened Wild Rose Café and Deli in the Friendly Street neighborhood in 1991 and moved it to the Fifth Street Public Market in 1993 as the Wild Rose Food Company.

Continued...

Page 1 of 2 next >

Article Tools