A healthy way to start the day or end the night, Start restaurant owner Erin McKool recently opened restaurant number two on Lemmon Avenue adding to the already successful sister on Greenville Avenue.
“I wanted to open a restaurant that filled a niche in Dallas,” McKool explains of her initial idea. “Being a brand new mom, I realized there was nowhere to get "clean" food through a drive-through in Dallas.”
McKool says she wanted to create something different than a diet concept “I wanted to be able to pull through a drive-through and order all natural food, with no preservatives, no nitrites, no antibiotics, no corn syrup and no partially hydrogenated vegetable oils. I wanted salad dressings that were made from scratch; not squeeze packets with preservatives. People seemed to be craving the same thing, and once it was successful on Greenville Avenue, we looked for another high traffic location to build our second store.”
She says she loves the Oak Lawn neighborhood where the second location opened “We have really enjoyed getting to know our new guests over there.”
Indeed, it really is hard to believe you can get healthy food like pancake sandwiches for breakfast or a variety of wraps that taste better than anywhere else in town – through the drive-through.
Keeping the same menu as the Greenville Avenue location too, the food is always focused on pure, all natural using many locally sourced ingredients. Eggs, milk, sugar and many other items are always organic. Start only uses meats and eggs from humanely raised animals and say will never use products that are raised on hormones and antibiotics, or treated with nitrites. They offer 100% grass-fed hamburgers, from local favorite, Burgundy Pastures. Bakery items are made with whole-wheat flour, and they also offer gluten-free baked goods. For the thirsty, Start offers fresh-squeezed juices and smoothies and artisan coffee and espresso they serve is roasted locally at Full City Rooster, in the most environmentally efficient roaster available in the world.
The name, Start, was selected to inspire the community to take a first step toward eating better on the run. McKool believes there is a growing demand for quality, thoughtfully prepared food from quick service restaurants. Her dream is to start a trend that remodels fast food.
“On a weekly basis, we get requests to build in Preston Hollow, Lakewood and elsewhere,’ McKool concludes. “We would like to first grow our catering business and then consider where to launch site three. We are so grateful to Dallas for embracing us and for all the feedback we've received. Hearing from our guests allows us to know what to tweak and how to improve what we are doing all the time.”
Start (Greenville Ave. location)
4814 Greenville Avenue
Dallas, Texas 75206
214.265.1411
Start (Lemmon Ave. location)
4023 Lemmon Avenue
Dallas, Texas 75219
214.599.7873
www.startrestaurant.net
Hours of operation: Open daily 7am – 9pm.