SPREADING
THE LOVE Healthy eating can be a hard sell sometimes. But at Delisheeyo, the flavor and the experience sell themselves.
BY BARRY KAUFMAN
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PHOTOS BY ROB KAUFMAN
Despite owning one of the most celebrated hotspots for healthy eating, and one of the few in the entire county to focus solely on vegetarian food, Blake Wearren wasn’t always the biggest fan of the kind of fresh, healthy food he now champions. “I used to call it rabbit food,” he said. “I didn’t really eat this style of food, but I met the chef here and she dipped a piece of kale in some of our Fred’s dressing for me to try. I thought I was going to have to put on a show, but as soon as it hit I was like, ‘I actually like this.’” That life-altering discovery of the simple truth behind Delisheeyo – that healthy food can taste incredible – made Blake Wearren what he calls, “the original convert.” He would not be the last. “I’ll get a guy in here and you can tell he’s a meatand-potatoes kind of guy, and that’s my specialty because I grew up that way,” he said. “We just send them to the So Cal every time and it’s like a 100% percent success rate. And then that same guy will be bringing in their crew and it just grows from there.” That’s not some hollow boast. One of the biggest drivers of the restaurant’s success, and indeed one of the main reasons it will now celebrate 15 years in business, is that tendency to convert the unlikeliest of patrons to fanatics. Someone who has never eaten healthy before will come in, usually at the urging of someone who has already been turned on to 12
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