On crowded Willamette Street, where multiple restaurants, bakeries and businesses all fight to be seen, Toasted Herbs Kitchen stands out for one particular reason: its name.
For the average college student, it’s difficult not to ask: What exactly is the correlation here between marijuana and food? Turns out, absolutely nothing.
“Our food used to be cannabis-based, to a point,” co-owner Rik Shepperd said.
When Toasted Herbs Kitchen opened in 2006, originally as Herb’s Toasted Subs, owners Rik Shepperd and Debbie Woods used hemp seed oil in their foods for its nutritional value. Hemp seed oil, unlike hash oil, contains little to no THC.
Still, one doesn’t have to smoke to eat at Toasted Herbs Kitchen. Unlike other sub restaurants, Toasted Herbs offers unique and quality food that stands out on its own. That high quality is the result of the restaurant’s dedicated owners, who make all of the food at the restaurant from scratch.
This goal, to make everything from scratch, keeps the owners busy, often working 12 to 15 hour days, six days a week.
As worn out as they can get, the owners refuse to turn to processed food as a substitute.
“It evolved to the point where we wanted to have as many ‘hands off’ of the food as possible,” Woods said.
Shepperd and Woods, who both transferred from the medical field to the restaurant, felt that homemade and organic food was their only option because not only does it taste far better, but there is also less risk of illness, chemicals or preservatives in food in its most natural form.
The chili they cook from scratch, for example, is not given any gluten or preservatives other than salt to taste. The chili not only tastes better, they said, but because it’s gluten-free, more customers can enjoy it.
The owners said they have to have a true love affair with food and their jobs to preserve their food values.
Toasted Herbs doesn’t just make sub sandwiches. The menu includes nine different categories of meals served, including salads, rice bowls (or plates), quesadillas, sandwiches, comfort food, tortilla wraps, miscellaneous (side dishes, bread made from scratch, hot or cold drinks) and “munchies” (handmade desserts).
As much work as it is to make everything on the menu organic and from scratch, Shepperd and Woods said they wouldn’t do it any other way.
“We can be who we are, and do what we feel is something good,” Shepperd said.
“It’s a love story,” Woods said. “It’s our love.”
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