Jesse is joined by Monique Silen, Owner of Savannah’s Kayak Kafe. What started out as a spot for healthier options next door to a gym downtown has blossomed into two locations across the city. More and more people are enjoying alternative diets and one of the few spots in Savannah that appeals to all is Kayak.

Jesse Blanco: Alright, welcome back to the Eat It Like a podcast. Joining us this morning is a very special guest and old friend from running around here in Savannah, you see the same old smiling faces, and you think, you know, haven’t spoken to this person in a hot minute, so I wanted to introduce her to all of you here in the Savannah surrounding area. Her name is Monique Silen, she’s the owner and operator of two, count them, two Kayak Kafes, one downtown, one in the Midtown area. We will get into all of that. First of all, welcome, how are ya?

Monique Silen: Good! Thank you for having me, very excited to talk to you today. Thank you.

JB: My pleasure, yeah, like I was saying, you know, we all know each other, we all see each other passing here and there, ‘hey, how are you? Hey, how’s it going? Hey, how’s business?’, all that stuff. But more rare is the occasion where we actually get the opportunity to have a conversation, and learn, perhaps, a little bit about each other. I mentioned you had two Kayak Kafes, the first one coming up on a big old anniversary next year, right?

MS: That’s right, yep. We’re gonna be 20 next year, big milestone for us.

JB: Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I mean, twenty years in this town, I always refer to our culinary renaissance–that’s a term I came up with, by the way–in 2014, that was when you started hearing about celebrity chefs and all—The Grey, and Collins Quarter, and all of these things started happening, that was now eleven years ago. You chose to open a spot nine full years before that. Can you remember, tell us a little bit about what you were thinking back nineteen years ago?

MS: Yeah, absolutely! So back then, it was my husband and a former partner, and they were just—it was a project about, the person that owned the gym had a cafe, and she wanted to not be part of it anymore. So they decided to kinda like, “yeah, absolutely,” they were looking for an opportunity like that, and it was, back then, just a smoothie and a sandwich shop, and it was attached to the gym. So it slowly, organically, grew into what it is today, and every year, you know, along with its own challenges, they were adding things to the menu, trying to offer different things that could potentially, be of liking to the customers in Savannah, and it kinda, like, all went organically into the healthy route, and the inclusivity of all diets, and that’s pretty much how it came about. You know, it was not a plan, it just went that way. Yeah.

JB: I find that very interesting, you just used the term, “it became that.” So for those who don’t know, Kayak Kafe… I don’t wanna label it “healthy eats”, but it is, I mean, you are kinda sorta Savannah’s go-to for salads. Like you said, all diets are inclusive, you have vegan options, clearly lots of vegetarian options… you’ve ended up filling that niche here in this city with both locations, but it sounds to me like what you just said, that happened. You could have opened any kind of restaurant, but because it was originally next to a gym, right there at Broughton near Bull, you kinda skewed toward the sandwiches and smoothies to be a little healthier, right?

MS: Yeah, and back then on Broughton Street, there weren’t many options in that realm. And I would say that the main focus was always the fresh, from scratch food kinda thing, and that also became a whole part of that. And whenever, back in the day, the whole vegan movement, the vegetarian, the gluten free came about, it gave us room to experiment with, like, well, we can absolutely look into it, why not offer these things? Let’s see how people are receptive to it, you know? And people were, especially being downtown, having a lot of foot traffic, traveling, yeah, tourists and whatnot. So it became kinda like the little healthy oasis. There’s a lot of southern options, so it naturally became that. Yeah.

JB: I smile, and I wanna laugh because, yes, and it still is, it is the healthy oasis, certainly on Broughton Street, there’s a lot of everything on Broughton Street, as you know, but Kayak is still that healthy oasis. If somebody had told you five years before you started that one on Broughton Street, “you’re gonna end up in this niche,” would you have believed it?

MS: I don’t know. I don’t think so. Yeah, and that’s the beauty of it. Like, we never tagged us or cataloged us or anything like that, as that kind of cooking or offering, so, yeah. That’s a funny thing to think about.

JB: Yeah. Yeah, it’s wild how things like that happen. Now, you are the healthy oasis on Broughton Street, you guys, nine years, eight years later, opened your location in Midtown Savannah, which is in between the two hospitals, so I’m sure you get a lot of the medical crowd coming through there, particularly at lunchtime. But how would you say–and this is a tricky question because it’s impossible, I’m sure, to describe in a in a minute or so–how would you say what Kayak Kafe… how it has evolved from what it began as, which was gonna be, you know, a quick salad or sandwich?

MS: Yeah, absolutely. I think that once we opened our Midtown location, we had more room, we had more space to kinda, like, explore into other things and look into, with the location, what else could we offer that could fall under the umbrella of Kayak, of our brand, right? So being there, having a bigger location, having a full bar, we were able to offer more of a kinda, like, bar bites kinda thing. But now we’re not only the healthy niche, we are… you wanna have a sandwich, a taco, a quesadilla? It’s still under the fresh concept, but now we have more offerings with that. And that has been great that, you know, we’ve had great receptiveness from the locals, from the crowd that work and live there. We’re like a neighborhood bar, a neighborhood restaurant, family friendly, you know, all of the above, so that was great. That was great for us, yeah.

JB: So—and again, I’ll say for the third time, you guys fill that niche, especially downtown. In Midtown, there might be a couple other options here and there, but downtown, like you were saying, at the time, there was nothing on Broughton that even remotely came close to what you guys were doing, and I don’t think there still is. And it’s the funniest thing, that I tell people when I get asked, “hey, where do I find vegetarian?” Or, “hey, where do I find vegan?” And I tell them, well, you know, Savannah has lots of places that have an option or two on their menu, but a place that is immersed in that niche, the only one really downtown, forgive me if I’m forgetting anybody, is you. And the only other one that I might mention is Coco and Moss, because they have a nice array of salads. But beyond that, they’re—you can go to a restaurant and there’s one thing, but there isn’t a whole lot.

MS: I agree. I agree, yeah.

JB: And the big question here for this whole conversation, in my book anyway, why do you think that is? We have a lot of SCAD students who are, you know, vegetarian, vegan, and a lot of healthy people, you know, the older crowd that lives downtown, they are into, you know, healthier diets. Why do you think we haven’t seen more?

MS: That is a great question. And I sometimes ask myself that too, and I honestly don’t know the right answer to that. I feel like, you know, maybe opening—we’re heavy on the salads, yeah, 

I would say, like, that’s one of our main things, we’re a salad restaurant. Maybe that’s not really much of an enticing kind of offering, that somebody would wanna come and open a salad place, or, you know, I feel that there’s always, especially downtown, the concept is more of, like, either a fine dining, or something in between fast casual and fine dining, but with a little bit of a southern twist, maybe catering more to the tourists, you know, maybe thinking more of, like, well, they’re coming here, that might be the thing that they’re looking for. So it’s an interesting question, and, yeah, I’m not sure exactly why. That would be my guess.

JB: Yeah. No, I get it, I don’t have an answer. I’ve heard over the years from so many businesses downtown that they’re seeing fewer and fewer of their regulars, you know, the locals who have had offices in the area are getting moved out of downtown, and, you know, it’s more and more you’re seeing tourists and visitors coming to town… I would bet, however, that Kayak downtown sees a ton of local regulars, yeah?

MS: We do. We do, we actually do. I mean, we have locals that have been coming there for ten plus years. Law offices, banks, yeah, there is still a good amount of people that work downtown, and in the downtown vicinity that either walk around, you know, and they want to get a quick bite, and they’re just… yeah, but we still do see a lot of those people there, yeah.

JB: Yeah. Yeah, I know they’re out there. If you recall, what, about two years ago now? The little soda shop around the corner from you, those guys finally said, “we’re done, we’re retiring,” and they sold the building and all that, and they were some of the ones that were telling me, “you know, it’s just not the same anymore, so many people are moving out of downtown…” and I maintained at the time, and I’ll say it again now, that, yeah, the people are still there. Not everybody wants a big ole fried chicken sandwich, or a burger, or anything that’s gonna make you feel sluggish after lunch, and the only real quick, good alternative in that regard with a lot of options is you guys. And, you know, we can scan the whole neighborhood in our heads in a few seconds…

MS: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

JB: But I don’t know—sure, there’s other salads, of course, around town, but you guys continue to fill that niche. So let’s talk a little bit about the menu. What would you say, downtown, what would you say are a couple, two or three maybe, of the most popular items that give people an idea of what it is that you guys do?

MS: Yeah, absolutely. So I would say our two top salads that are the most popular are always the Mexican Chicken Salad and the Broughton Cobb. You know, we have a half and half, which is either a salad/sandwich or a salad/soup, and that’s a pretty popular one, but I would say those. We got a couple paninis too… yeah, I think that people are coming there specifically, and they are looking for a light bite, so those are kinda like the go-tos, pretty much, yeah.

JB: Yeah. It’s my go-to, that chicken salad with the cilantro dressing?

MS: Oh, yeah, the cilantro lime, I know.

JB: Yeah, cilantro lime, that’s it. Yeah yeah yeah, that’s mine, whenever I’m there, that’s the one I get. Speaking of which, that cilantro lime dressing, and all of the dressings that you guys serve with your salad, you make in house, correct?

MS: We do. We do, yeah, we’re pretty much batching that every day, or every other day, so yeah.

JB: I bet you are. Is there anything—I don’t think there is, nothing fried?

MS: No, not at our downtown location. Midtown we do, we got a fryer, you know, way bigger kitchen, and we’re able to do that, yeah.

JB: Yeah, and that, you know… if mom wants a salad, and dad wants something else, a little more heavy, whatever, it’s nice to have options in your midtown location.

MS: Yeah, absolutely.

JB: Have you thought about doing a third location? (laughing) I laugh because you’re probably like, “hell no!”

MS: I know, I know, it’s kinda like, sometimes we’re like, let’s do it! And other times, we’re like, let’s pump the brakes a little bit on that. So it’s in the future plans. you know, we want to, but I think with us, our growth is always very, kinda like, okay, we wanna make sure that we have all our decks on table and things are aligned, we don’t wanna put ourselves in a situation that we’re spreading ourselves too thin. So I think it’s a combination of having the right people and, you know, a good location, and what are we gonna do? And so we go back and forth. It’s still there, the idea, because we see the success of downtown and midtown, and we’re like, you know, why not? Why not? 

JB: Yeah. But, however, you know, if somebody came along and tried to talk you into leaving Broughton Street and going to a bigger space, you know, I I don’t know the ins and outs of your business, but you are in such a good location there at Broughton and Bull, which is kinda like ground zero for downtown with foot traffic. The best foot traffic is right around there. I’m sure sometimes you wish you had 15 or 20 more seats, but sometimes that’s a blessing, is it not?

MS: It is. Yes. Yeah, it is. And actually, I think we’ve gotten to a point that, like, this is a good amount of space, you know? It’s manageable in every sense, so yeah.

JB: You offer—we did the burger bash a couple of months ago back here in Savannah, in the whole area, and you guys offered the only veggie burger. I know—again, I didn’t put pen to paper and start researching who has veggie burgers, I don’t know if you’re the only one, but I would bet that there are probably two or three veggie burgers on a regular menu in all of Savannah. Would that be a fair statement? Have you seen any others out there?

MS: I would say that’s a fair statement, I honestly have not. And, I think that the whole, veggie/vegan burger thing has kinda, like, gone through its own growth pattern on how things are. You know, it used to be, like, the impossible burger became very popular, and everyone had it on their menu, and now it’s not so cool, so I think the one thing that helped us is that we always stuck with, like, okay, whatever we’re gonna offer, it’s gonna be from scratch, housemade, good ingredients, and that’s that’s gonna be our thing, you know? We don’t wanna… I don’t know, I think that might be the reason why we still have it on our menu, and maybe why people still like it and appreciate it, because it started that way from the beginning, and it hadn’t really changed. But, yeah, I don’t know how popular it would be to have a veggie burger on a menu in a place that is not too, you know, health centered.

JB: Right, right, right. Yeah, which is the beauty in the niche that you guys have established for yourselves, and and have grown such an amazing following in now almost twenty years downtown and eleven in midtown. Tell us your website, if anybody is just learning about you for the first time, where they can find and see your menu, where your locations are, and all that stuff.

MS: Yeah, of course, it’s eatkayak.com.

JB: Eatkyak.com, which tells me probably that when you started this, kayak.com was taken by the travel whatever.

MS: (laughing) Yeah, exactly, exactly.

JB: (laughing) Yeah, you always see, it’s like, okay, the one they wanted wasn’t there, but 

eatkayak is perfect.

MS: Yeah.

JB: Monique, thank you for taking a few minutes to chat with us. Anything else you wanna add that somebody should know about your places?

MS: Thank you, Jesse. You know, I think we pretty much covered everything, yeah. I think that we’re excited, you know, we’re very grateful to still be here, have a good presence in Savannah, and we’re hoping to continue to be that place for a long time, you know, for customers old and new, and yeah. That’s what we want.

JB: Yeah, certainly, you are that place. You have become that place, earned your spot in, in healthy eats, vegetarian, vegan, and otherwise here in Savannah, so congratulations on almost two decades. That’s quite an accomplishment in and of itself, but hopefully, we’ll have a conversation again at thirty years.

MS: Yeah, sounds great. Thank you so much, Jesse.

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