Asheville Area Restaurants Rethinking Kids' Menus to Fight Childhood Obesity

As a father of four boys, age 11 to 21, he's waged his fair share of food fights in his home kitchen, trying to make sure his clan grows up strong eating nutritional meals instead of their junk food cravings.

He takes his battle plan to work with him, too. As a restaurateur, Frabitore is also concerned with making sure the pint-sized diners at his Tupelo Honey Café locations have nutritious and delicious meals.

“I see how kids respond to good home-cooking and fresh local foods both in the restaurant and the home,” Frabitore said. “Cooking at home is a big deal to us and (my kids) understand it's better to have a lean piece of protein with some great vegetables than a pizza.”

Frabitore is helping other kids make better choices at the College Street and Hendersonville Road locations of his restaurant known for Southern cuisine with a twist.

The restaurants' chefs recently developed healthier choices for the kids menu, abandoning the typical deep-fried, greasy kid favorites such as chicken fingers.

Now you'll find veggie sliders, grilled Mahi Mahi, free-range chicken and vegetable farm fresh sides, from which you can also create your own individual veggie plate. “Once you become a parent, you become very in tune with (nutritional kids eating),” he said of the changes.

Community effort The recent menu additions is just one of several new community initiatives in which Tupelo Honey Café is participating to help Asheville's young eaters make better food choices.

Tupelo Honey Café executive chef Brian Sonoskus is among 45 local chefs committed to participating in the Chefs Move to Schools program developed by first lady Michelle Obama, which sends chefs to participate in cooking demonstrations throughout the school systems.

The menu changes were also initiated by the café's involvement in the new Food Field Trip Healthy Kids Challenge, created by the Asheville Independent Restaurant Association and Earth Fare.