LIMA — Fans of Fat Cat Diner and Main Street Bistro are in luck: Chef Alisa McPheron is reviving the Fat Cat brand with Meals by Fat Cat, which will offer a rotating menu of gourmet soups, salad and ready-to-go meals online.
There’s no restaurant or brick and mortar shop to visit. Instead, patrons can browse each week’s menu on Facebook and pre-order their dinners online. Meals will be available for pickup at Veterans Memorial Civic Center on Monday and Thursday afternoons starting Nov. 4.
Meals by Fat Cat is a new concept for McPheron and Melanie Kirchenbauer, who retired from restaurant life last fall when the duo closed their popular diner to focus on their online cookware business, Perfect Cheesecake Bakeware. But it didn’t take long for McPheron — a lifelong chef — to get antsy.
“When I’m not cooking for long periods of time, I get a little cranky,” she said.
And, as Kirchenbauer said, “everybody loves (McPheron’s) food.”
Uninterested in opening another restaurant, McPheron and Kirchenbauer decided to bring Fat Cat back on a limited time basis instead.
“When you’re running a restaurant, you’re working every single day,” McPheron said. “I love it, but you get nothing else done … (This) will fill a need to create and hopefully it will fill some people’s need to eat our food.”
The menu will rotate on a weekly basis, featuring a variety of soups, salad, desserts and ready-made meals — like gourmet meatloaf or bruschetta chicken — as well as keto-friendly and gluten-free options. Pickup hours may change too, as McPheron and Kirchenbauer evaluate feedback and experiment with the ready-to-order concept.
“We’re going to start here,” McPheron said. “We’re going to make some meals. We’re going to keep working on (Perfect Cheesecake Bakeware).”
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