Blossoming Lotus Restaurants are a group of vegan restaurant in Hawaii, California and Portland, Oregon. Founded in 2002, the restaurants offer "Vegan World Fusion Cuisine", organic, GMO-free, and locally grown gourmet vegan and live food popularized by founder and chef Mark Reinfeld and business partner Gabe Zingaro.
Contents
History
Blossoming Lotus was born as a vision of award-winning and founding chef, Mark Reinfeld. Reinfeld's vision began its manifestation on the mainland USA as a chef consultant, creating recipes and training chefs to prepare healthy vegan fare. He then moved to Kapaʻa, Hawaii on Kauai, where his vision took root with a small group of willing and inspired souls who had a gathering space called The Portal. As Reinfeld's recipes permeated the landscape, it was evident that the community supported such a concept. Two days after Blossoming Lotus opened in 2002, Silicon Valley investor Bo Rinaldi joined the business. Reinfeld took on the role of "creative visionary and culinary soul" and, in 2006, Blossoming Lotus moved to a larger location at the Dragon Building in downtown Kapaʻa. The original location was transformed into, and appropriately named, The Lotus Root: a juice bar and bakery. Thus a second concept under the Blossoming Lotus brand was established.
The Lotus Root offers food made without refined sugar or dairy products, such as vegan pastries, ice cream, juices, and smoothies. The Blossoming Lotus Cafe in Portland, Oregon is at 1713 NE 15th Avenue in the Northeast Irvington neighborhood. This location was opened on July 29, 2009 and features a restaurant atmosphere. This was followed by the closure of their Pearl District location. A fourth location is planned for Mountain View, California.
The Blossoming Lotus style of international vegan cuisine was popularized in the 2004 Vegan World Fusion Cuisine Cookbook, written by founder and executive chef Mark Reinfeld and owner Bo Rinaldi. The book contains an introduction by Jane Goodall and 200 vegan recipes.
Restaurant
Book
Vegan Fusion World Cuisine: Extraordinary Recipes & Timeless Wisdom from the Celebrated Blossoming Lotus Restaurants: A cookbook with over 200 recipes from the Blossoming Lotus restaurants.