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Former NBA Player Creates Healthy Quick-Service Restaurant Concept

Ray Allen and his wife Shannon will be opening Grown in Miami

By Nick Powills1851 Franchise Publisher
SPONSORED 1:13PM 03/02/16
Former NBA player Ray Allen and his wife, Shannon, will be opening an organic-food quick-service restaurant concept, Grown, in March.

The restaurant’s menu will be focusing on organic, farm-to-table food, and it will be open for breakfast, lunch and dinner service. All the items are made in-house and there will be no freezers on the Miami-based premise to ensure everything is made fresh.

Where many athletes may just lend their name to a restaurant concept, the Allens are a major part of the restaurant’s operations. According to Shannon Allen, the idea for the restaurant started six years ago, when Ray was playing for the Boston Celtics. Shannon was running errands one day when one of her children, who has Type 1 diabetes, needed food immediately to combat low blood sugar. Shannon could only find fried and unhealthy food options in her vicinity and called upon a chef friend to bring some gluten-free chicken tenders from his restaurant. Shannon said the goal for the restaurant is to create a healthy fast food spot for families and dieters who need good food in a pinch.

“I know people are going to say, ‘This is awesome, Ray has this incredible career, he’s an icon…and he’s reinventing fast food,’” Shannon told QSR Magazine. “But even beyond that, I think the story of Grown is that it was time. It’s time for this. And we’re not doing it alone; we’ve got an army of people who are standing with us, and that’s the beauty of it.”

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