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.
Mary Ann Beauchamp would cook something new everyday and found her most popular dish was made of rice and beans, Mark Beauchamp said.
“One of the simplest things we did became the most popular item,” he said. “This developed, and we came up with different combinations of rice and beans and toppings.”
The couple decided they were onto something, Beauchamp said.
“Every time someone would take a bite of this, they would say, ‘Yum, what is this?’” Beauchamp said.
And so the couple came up with a new name and opened Café Yumm! in 1997. The restaurant expanded to a Willamette Street location in 1999 and to the Oakway Center in 2002.
“That location broadened our market presence,” Beauchamp said. “It gave us great exposure and gave us lots of credibility to a larger market.”
The Fifth Street Public Market location closed in 2005 but another opened at Green Acres Road and Delta Highway in July of this year.
The popularity of the restaurant increased, so the Beauchamps decided they needed to continue the expansion.
“There’s only two ways you can grow: You have to have tons of money so you can build restaurants,” Beauchamp said. “The other is by franchising.”
They chose the latter and will open the East Broadway location as a franchise. Zack Hegge, president of Fresh Directions, LLC, will open the first third-party franchise at 3346 Gateway St. in Springfield on Nov. 1.
Hegge said he used to eat at the Willamette Street location and became a huge fan. He read a newspaper article about the expansion of Café Yumm! and called the Beauchamps.
“From there, I contacted them and had a few meetings and ongoing conversations,” Hegge said.
He said he was interested in opening a Café Yumm! because the company is concerned about the community and environment.
The recent expansion might only be the beginning for Café Yumm!’s growth. A Bend franchise will open in November, Beauchamp said, and there is also interest in Portland, Salem, Corvallis and the Medford area.
Beauchamp said he hopes food quality is maintained through other Café Yumm! franchises. Each new restaurant needs to have the money to start the franchise, he said, and must meet with company officials prior to opening a Café Yumm!
“A lot of the best franchises in the industry don’t have experience in the restaurant industry,” Beauchamp said. “They don’t have any preconceived ideas.”