24 July 2013
CATALYSTMAGAZINE.NET
LOCAL FOOD
Avenues Bistro on 3rd takes local food to a new level STORY & PHOTOS BY ADELE FLAIL
ach month, CATALYST brings our readers tales of fascinating local endeavors—entrepreneurs launching new restaurants or retail businesses, gardeners digging, composting and planting their way to greener communities, or locals organizing to improve the vitality of the city we share—but this month, we’re going to take you on a tour of a local business bringing all of these ideas together in the vision of one mover and shaker who understands that, if you want the fruit, sometimes you just have to climb out on a limb. For Kathie Chadbourne, proprietor of the Avenues Bistro on 3rd, out on a limb is par for the course. “I’m not afraid to take risks,” says Chadbourne, looking around the patio garden of her newest venture. “I probably take too many risks, but I seem to move in the right direction.” Chadbourne is a free spirit whose travels have taken her all over the US and through many occupations and settings: school in Baton Rouge, a degree in nursing and classes in open-heart surgery assisting, studies in dental hygiene and elementary education, raising funds for private schools as a development director, taking part in the LDS relief society, and living on a Navajo reservation. But since first relocating to Salt Lake 13 years ago for her then-husband’s job, in between her tumbleweed travels, she’s found herself returning to the Avenues—and the connections she’s made here—again and again. “I think the bistro’s story begins this way: I’m not from Utah, but I’ve chosen to call Utah my home.” Chadbourne, who co-owned and ran the Avenues Bakery, moved to Ashland, Oregon where she ran a restaurant called Harper’s for a few years. Upon her return to Salt Lake about four years ago, she participated in several other food-related endeavors. Committed to starting a neighborhood bistro that would showcase the best of the neighborhood and the local community, Chadbourne’s project found a home in the
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