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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
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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About the Author
Nick Powills
FollowNick Powills, CFE, founded No Limit Agency in 2008 and serves as Chief Brand Strategist for the Chicago-based firm. No Limit is a full-service communications agency that establishes and elevates brands by bridging Public Relations, Social Media, Marketing, Advertising, Digital, and a lot of creativity, to best strategize well-rounded and successful campaigns for 50+ global franchise brands. By presenting visionary ideas and building real relationships, No Limit is able to create effective media branding strategies to help companies grow. Nick currently leads a staff of writers, media strategists, designers, social media experts and digital producers in an office think-tank where brands are humanized for strong, compelling media stories. Prior to starting No Limit at the age of 27, Nick spent four years working at a franchise PR agency where he mastered the art of building rapport with media outlets and creating newsworthy pitches for earned media placements. He holds a Bachelor of Journalism from Drake University in Iowa.
