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Vegan street food hits local courtyard

The Lunch Room, the vegan foods brainchild of Phillis Engelbert and Joel Panozzo, recently launched a Kickstarter campaign to finance a food cart opening in April. http://www.Kickstarter.com facilitates the raising of start-up funds for creative projects, and entrepreneurs communicate their ideas through videos and offer rewards for donations. The Lunch Room hopes to raise $8,000 in a 30-day period. Over $5,000 was raised in just the first 11 days of the campaign.
The Lunch Room, which will open in Mark's Carts courtyard, was founded by next-door neighbors and vegan foodies Engelbert and Panozzo in the summer of 2010. Panozzo is a gay activist, graphic designer and bicycle enthusiast; Engelbert is a community organizer, author and nonprofit administrator. The pair began by cooking elaborate vegan meals for large groups of friends.
In October the effort entered its "pop-up restaurant" phase. An underground undertaking, The Lunch Room operated on a reservations-only basis and served food at several different locations in Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti. It advertised its first event to an email list of 85 friends; as the word spread, that list grew to its current size of 375. The Lunch Room has held eleven dining events as of early March – including brunches, lunches, dinners – and has served over 450 meals. Reservations lists were capped at 35 to 50 people and sold out every time – sometimes within a day or two of being announced.
In early February, Engelbert and Panozzo learned of the initiative by Downtown Home & Garden owner Mark Hodesh to create a street food courtyard on W. Washington Street, just west of Ashley, in downtown Ann Arbor. The Lunch Room applied for a coveted cart space and was accepted. The Lunch Room is now preparing for a spring and summer of selling food from a concessions cart. It will serve fresh, healthy, delicious and economical breakfasts, lunches, dinners, sides and baked goods.
For more information about The Lunch Room, visit http://www.thelunchrooma2.com.

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