ChickiePoo's: Food of Love

When people thank me for writing about them on the GOING LOCAL site, I tell them that it's a privilege to share their stories. During my interviews with them, I'm continually inspired by their unending displays of time, energy, and commitment to making their businesses successful. And more often than not, I'm told that although their businesses are work...hard work... the work is a labor of love. 

However, in the two years that I've been telling these stories, I never really knew the true measure of a labor of love until I got an email last weekend from Phoebe James, co-owner of ChickiePoo's, a quaint little 14 seat bistro that is set to open in Madison, Indiana on November 11, 2009. The email simply asked me to list the restaurant's opening day. Several emails and more information later, I would come to know a story  that is so much more than just about the food.

When ChickiePoo's opens its doors a few days from now, it will represent a commitment of two parents to their four year old daughter, Isa (aka ChickiePoo), who in January 2009 was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. Her Dad, Chef Lucien Gregor and her Mom, Phoebe James, chose to open the restaurant in Madison so that they could both be closer to home as Isa, who dreams of a future as a chef, undergoes her rounds of chemotherapy.  

Why would they open a restaurant now? Phoebe explains on the restaurant's website,"The survival rate for Isa's leukemia is 85 to 90% but only for the five year mark. Ultimately anything can happen, so sooner rather than later became our mantra. Most children live in the moment, and all cancer parents realize that the moment to love and live is in the present moment." Circumstances do not afford them the luxury of time to delay their restaurant dreams for a tomorrow that may never come. 

So between trips to Indianapolis for Isa's chemo treatments, menus are being planned, local food items have been ordered from nearby Indiana producers, the kitchen and dining areas are being buffed and polished, and opening day is fast approaching. No one is more excited about it than the pasta loving Isa who said she favors the Hand-Made Noodles on the restaurant's menu. Her sister GG, who is five years old, loves the Squash with Apples--a dish that her Mom and Dad often make at home with local squash from Bloomingfoods and apples from nearby Goley's Orchard.

Although Phoebe is cautious when talking about the future, she told me,"We're all so excited. It's truly given us something to live for. We expect this place to be phenomenal." I think it already is. 


ChickiePoo's
209 Main Street
Madison, Indiana
Opening Day: November 11, 2009 at 11:00 a.m.

Photo: Courtesy of ChickiePoo's
   Chef Isa is hard at work in the restaurant kitchen.

 

Comments

[Tara Branch]

I ate there last night and it was wonderful! The prices were great and the food was well,,, I just can't say enough about it. We were even lucky enough to get a ballet performance from ChickiePoo herself and the "chocolate to live for" dessert was desribed in glowing terms by her sister,, SOLD!