Episode 14: A Taste of Austin's Healthy Dining Scene: The Well's Story with Nicole Pfromm

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Welcome, everybody. I have a special guest today. It's one of the owners of the well in Austin. It is Nicole Fromm. Welcome to the show, Nicole.

Thank you so much. Thanks for having me.

So everybody should know how much time I spend at the well. Just I'm a very biased person when it comes to the well. And we'll get right into it with Nicole. We had a discussion about why it's so special. But the well is a unique place. It has a very specific menu that I will let her get into. But first, Nicole, the restaurant business is incredibly difficult. What led you to want to start that, Start the well? And what's your inspiration behind it?

Yeah, so I've always been in the service industry. My family has owned restaurants forever, so I kind of grew up in them and wasn't always sure that that's what I wanted to do as a career. But I do have such a passion for just the being around people and just the day to day, like communications and the community and just being a part of that. But the real reason we got into the well and the inspiration behind the concept was really, why do we have to choose between eating well and eating out at restaurants? Because that just seems to be the flip. And why can't we have both of those things? So why can't we go out, socialize with friends and family in a beautiful space and enjoy the convenience of eating out, but also know that the food on the table is going to actually make us feel good and nourish our bodies? So what if we went out and sourced really clean, high quality ingredients, cook them in clean oils, and put together dishes and drinks that were both flavorful and intentional? I know you agreed that that's just not the norm, unfortunately, when you go out to eat. So that was just so important to us. And we went ahead. We worked with a nutrition consultant named Liv Langdon. She's incredible. She helped us create a menu that was nutrient dense and things that were just packed with flavor and so colorful. She helped us to identify which ingredients were the most important to include and which ones we should be avoiding. Ultimately, that led to what are now our brand, some of our brand standards for the well. And we also worked with the design team to create a space that's welcoming and comfortable, but also vibey and fun. I think that a lot of the quote unquote healthy restaurants, they all kind of have the same look and feel sometimes. And we wanted this to not only be a place where you could go grab a smoothie after your workout class, but Also look to us for a date night or a birthday dinner or a corporate event. And I think our 2nd street location downtown really kind of was able to capture so many different audiences and, and make people feel like they're not really sacrificing anywhere. They have this really high quality food, beautiful room, good music. Just really bring it all together.

Yeah, I think my first experience was obviously downtown at the street. And I'll share. I've had to avoid gluten because I'm gluten insensitive and so is my daughter. So our family's been gluten free for, oh my gosh, it's close to 10 years now. So that in itself is a very challenging thing to do. All of a sudden, take your entire family's diet and change it to gluten free. But we did that for the sake of helping our daughter. And then I, as a bystander of that, have not had gluten. And we would go to the well downtown and your kids are always like a little fussy about things. And so early on we'd go there and go to different places that have different gluten free options. And I'm sure those are not always created equal. They're all very, very different because gluten free foods, there's a lot of processing now in gluten free foods because it's another way for the food industry to make money is have a whole new service line of gluten free items. And so for anybody listening, so we consider food like. Basically what Nicole is referring to is food that you eat, if it has a label on it, you have to be very, very concerned. That's really not food. That's a. That's a processing label to warn you what's actually in it. It's not to describe its nutritional value. Those. Those are very different things. So it was interesting how I learned about the well in Westlake. I was doing a meeting with one of my managers and team members and the meeting ran so late. We ordered another restaurant and looked across the parking lot and I saw the sign for the well. I know the logo. I know what it stands for. And I was like, is there a well in Westlake now? Because I live and work here. This is where my office is in Austin. And I didn't know about that. And I walked over and came inside and said, are y'. All. How long y' all been here? Are you open? And that was, I believe, in the latter part of 23. And fast forward now, we have all of our team meetings There. And we want my patients, and we want everybody to eat this way. But for my patients, since we've gifted them cards to go to the well, and most of my clients are out of state or out of the country, so they're obviously making a big commitment to come stay here in Austin for about a week, at least throughout the country, it's a few weeks. So they need a great place to eat because everything you put in your mouth dictates how you feel, how you recover, how you function, both physically and emotionally, for sure. So it's always very comforting to show up at the well in Westlake or downtown, which I did show up at both locations quite a bit this weekend and see my patients there eating. So I didn't. I didn't know if I told you that, but I had patients from out of town at the downtown location on Saturday night. I had patients obviously at the Westlake location this weekend as well. So I guess for me, we. We talk about. And you told me specifically how you got to the. The. The menu. He has some very special things, I think, on the menu that would be interesting. So maybe highlight some of the things you really think are unique to the menu. I know I certainly can. So I'm anxious to hear, like, the Coles favorites on the menu.

Yeah, well, as far as the food goes, it's actually really simple. You touched on it. But it's. Our philosophy is stick to the basics. Right. Eat real whole foods. And our menu is completely free from gluten, dairy, soy seed oils, GMOs, refined sugars. So we're really trying to kind of take the guesswork out. People we source locally, wherever possible. And when it comes to produce, if it's an item that's listed on the Dirty Dozen list, we always source it organically. I'm guessing your listeners probably know what the Dirty Dozen list is.

Go ahead and just highlight it, because not everybody does. And this is our podcast, especially this one, I feel is one of the most important ones I'll ever do, because everything you put in your body is supremely important. And in today's world, it's probably as important as the air we breathe and the fluid we drink.

Yeah, for sure. So the ewg, or the Environmental Working Group, they analyze testing data from the Department of Agriculture and the fda. And. And they do this each year. They go through and they test, I want to say, 46 or some crazy big number of produce items to see what's most contaminated with pesticides or what's the least contaminated with pesticides. So the top 12 of the most contaminated items is what ends up on their Dirty dozen list. And it's meant to be like a shopper's guide for you're in the store and you have an avocado and an apple and it's like, which one do I need to buy the organic version of or which one the conventional. So those Dirty Dozen, all the produce that lands on their list of most contaminated with pesticides, we only source it organically at the well. So we're again just kind of taking that guesswork out for you. We're trying to do, do the work, source the right things. And that's how, that's how the menu starts. Right. So I can tell you some of my favorite things. But the most important thing for me and for us when we created this was just getting the high quality foods, getting the organics when we need it, to working with local farms and all of that stuff. So our proteins, of course, are very high quality too.

So, so that everybody's listening so we understand without having to go look for it. I'm going to tell you what, according to the environmental Working Group, what the Dirty dozen is. Number one is strawberries. Number two is spinach. Three is kale, collard and mustard greens. Four is grapes. Five is peaches. Six is pears. Seven is nectarines, my favorite fruit growing up. Eight is apples. Nine is bell and hot peppers. Ten is cherries. Eleven is blueberries. And twelve is green beans.

Yep. And that's the new 2024 updated one that they just came out with. So there's a couple things that are always there. Strawberries, I think have been number one for the longest time. So you'll never find a non organic strawberry in the well. So, okay, nitty gritty. The, the specifics of the menu. Some of my favorites are bone broth. Really special, really unique. I think a lot of people come just for that, actually. I know they do because they call ahead of time to make sure we have enough. Bone broth is a big one.

Why yours is so different than everybody else's? Because it is very different.

It is different. We simmer the bones and always using really high quality bones. Organic grass fed beef bones for the beef bone broth and organic pasture raised chicken bones for the chicken. We simmer it overnight with tons of fruits or not fruits, I'm sorry, tons of vegetables. Really let it, let it simmer, let it soak. And I think what a lot of places do, once everything's done simmering, you'll see like this big layer on the top that it doesn't look great. So I think a natural thing for a lot of people is just to skim that top layer off and serve the more watery broth below it. But that's where all the good stuff is. That's where all the nutrients lie and the collagen. So what we do is we use this huge emulsifier and blend everything back together so that we keep all the, all the good stuff in there. And then per order, we ladle it out and then into a Vitamix blender actually and we hit it again in the blender to make it nice and frothy and it's so delicious.

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So one of my favorite salads is the roasted beet salad. I told you my favorites way back when and now I see that's one of your go tos. Beet salad with salmon and a chicken bone broth and gosh, I have so many chilaquiles. Is really awesome for breakfast. Super unique, really flavorful. That's another thing we really focus on is hey, healthy food does not mean a piece of boiled chicken, brown rice and broccoli, right? Like you can still have really good flavors and have it be really fun and actually delicious to eat. It doesn't mean that it's bland. It we always make sure that everything is really seasoned well and and all of that. I love our tacos. We have a couple different tortilla options actually in the early days when we first opened, we used to make our own cassava flour tortillas and as we grew and expanded, it was hard to keep up with that. So now we use cfa CIA Foods, a local brand. They're incredible. They just mesh so well with us and happy to be able to support other local brands. At the Westlake location, we offer sandwiches again, gluten free bread. We get that from a company called It's All Good. They're also based here in Austin. Chicken salad sandwich. I think I eat that probably a little too often for lunch. Let's see what are my other favorites? I honestly have so many. Coconut curry squash is definitely a favorite, especially at the Westlake location. And the pastas are new, so we're sourcing organic brown rice pasta and have.

To highlight for families because I think when people feel like they can't bring their kids because the food is not going to fall into what we would typically think kid food is, which is like pasta. I, I had a family there who had a five year old who came with us last week and he's, his name is Daniel. And I said, daniel, would you like to have some pasta with meat or without me? And he's like, no, no meat, Dr. Rob. I'm like, okay, we'll get you that without me. And he sat there and really enjoyed it, was. He was quite the entertainer for the entirety of dinner. So my point is like, I see families there all the time and I don't want anybody listening to feel like they can't come there with a family. I think it's a very family friendly atmosphere and enjoy a good meal and have options that kids will enjoy. And kids, they're going to imprint what you basically put in front of and then for like a savory food. It takes about 13 times introducing that food to a child before they'll embrace it versus something that has a bunch of fructose in it, which causes a big dopamine rush, which is why they like sweet stuff, which is obviously what we're trying to counter both with doing this show together. And your menu is you can eat extremely healthy, avoid things like fructose, which your body can't really for the most part handle, which leads to things like fatty liver, visceral fat accumulation. These are all things that we're trying to avoid just by making the appropriate choices. And, and that's why we have. And you brought up tacos. Like, I mean in Texas, breakfast tacos are like the thing like other people have like whatever eggs and this and that and like in Texas it's breakfast tacos and there's lots of, I mean I can't even tell you how many places around here sell breakfast tacos. But at the well I feel like they have the best breakfast tacos. So yesterday my daughter's like, woke up late, she's a teenager and she's like, I need to go eat something. I'm like, well here's your option. If you want me to take you, we're going to go to the well and have breakfast tacos because I'm not going to take you these other places because I don't know what's in the food. I'm not interested in vetting the food. So we're just going to go here. So that's obviously a little prescriptive, but that's my problem parent. So that they. What you put in your body helps you make better decisions both physically and for performance, obviously. And mentally. For performance.

Yeah, for sure. I mean you, you mentioned the sugars and the fructose. That's, that's such a big one for us because we of course we have sweeteners at the well, but we're only using things like maple syrup and local honey agave. I mean these things still aren't perfect, but they're natural. That's important to us. So also something kind of unique about what we do. We also have a full bar and a beverage program and sometimes you wouldn't think that would go hand in hand with such like a quote unquote healthy place. But again, we're kind of doing all the work. We're so conscious and intentional with, with all these items that we're bringing in and, and which things we're sourcing. So not unusual to see a totally different wine list at the well than at a neighboring restaurant because we're sourcing wines made with organic grapes. And it's not perfect. No one's going to tell you that drinking our margarita is good for you, but when you order ours is we're not using these store bought syrups and, and junk. We're really going the extra mile making everything in house from scratch and just trying to, to make sure that again, it's delicious, but it's clean, everything is clean.

So I think it reminds me of eating in Spain.

There you go.

I think what's, unless you've spent a little time out and about, it's, it's not as common to go to quote unquote, a, a restaurant that is got the menu options, the quality ingredients, the aspects of high quality spirits or wine and in a relaxing, kind of very simple, unstuffy atmosphere where you can eat and just enjoy a meal with your friends or family or if you're sitting there just doing your work, whatever. It reminds me of being the way in Spain. It was very comfortable to me. And so for. And you all have outdoor seating at both locations, which is very nice. It's been incredibly nice here in Austin the last couple weeks. So, yeah, I mean that's, it's a very natural place to go and hang out. It's become, I think, such a fan favorite across my patients. They post about it on social media and I've. I give all of them gift cards to go to the well, but they're already going to the well before they end up seeing me many times because they fly into town early if they're from out of town or if they're in town, I, I catch them there eating there, which is great. Which is what we want.

Yeah, it's pretty special. We've really, I think something that we weren't maybe expecting when we started but has kind of fallen into place. Like we really built a community there. I felt like that a lot on Second street and now especially in Westlake because I spend so much time there myself, of course. But people walk through the door and it's like, hey, Jessica. Hey. So and so. Like it's really. We have so many people that are big supporters and who feel comfortable and who trust us and we have a great team and everyone is just really, really welcomed and it's been a really good dynamic. So it's nice. And back to your kind of talking about how it reminds you of Spain. I wanted to touch on that because in Europe, my family's Greek. I think I mentioned that in the beginning. We go to Greece in the summer, try to bring the kids there. And you don't really think, you don't go to a restaurant and think, oh, I, I wonder which one we should go eat at. Who's using the better food or who, who's cooking with clean oils? Right. Everyone's using olive oil to cook with and all the fish is coming straight from, from the sea. And it, that is what food is supposed to be. And it's just kind of a shame that we've gotten so far away from that. So we're not reinventing the wheel here. We're really just. We're trying to get back to the basics and feed people what, what they should be eating and what we should all, all be. Nourishing ourselves with.

Right. It's very much like any village you go to in any area that you're, you're describing or I've spent more time and spend some time my kids. And it's. There are no bad ingredients on the coasts in the, in the world. There are only choices made by people preparing the foods about those ingredients. But that's why I feel strongly about the, where you are in your position in the community. So everybody knows Nicole and her husband Rich have two young daughters. They're rooted in the community. So they're, they're not going any anywhere anytime soon. So we feel a great deal of enthusiasm and want to support the well because they're doing everything right in terms of how they source their ingredients, how they prepare their foods with no seed oils and no gluten and no dairy and really create a way to optimize so that you not only eat well but you live well. So why don't you remind everybody where they can find the wells in Austin.

The flagship well, the original that's going to be downtown on Second Street. 440 W. Second St. Is the address. It's right below Violet Crown Cinema. It's a really great street, a great area downtown. Our other restaurant in Westlake is 6317 Bee Caves Road. It's right off of 360 MB Cave right there. So it's really conveniently located and a little bit easier when it comes to just accessibility and parking. If you are local and you're driving, downtown's great for the travelers and people visiting. It's easy to get to as well walking around downtown. And we also have a little well cafe that's really a more of a smoothie bar. It has all of our grab and go items and options. We have a whole organic cold pressed juice program. It's available at all three locations. But inside of Studio 3, which is a gym out of Chicago, they opened their first Austin location and asked us to be the food element there. So we opened a little cafe, like I said, where you can get smoothies and juices and some of our grab and go bites. We don't have a full kitchen there, but it's also nice to just kind of pop in. And that one's on 5th and Brazos. So.

Well, so for all of my patients who come in from out of state, now the country, the reason I'm so passionate about it is you have to have a low inflammatory diet if you want to recover well and recover more efficiently. And we discuss this in my book that's coming out soon about the Sharp program to enhance recovery after any kind of treatment or surgery, regardless of what it is, whether it's cosmetic, orthopedic, cardiac, it doesn't matter what type of surgery it is. What we put in your body, it. It really matters. As an understatement, it will be transformative. So thank you again for joining me today. Today, Nicole and I look forward to seeing you soon at the.

Well, thank you. Thanks for having me.