The Love connection

This was going to be an article that pegged Quentin Love as the black Rich Melman, or at least the guy on his way to earning that tag. The nine restaurants in his I Love Food Group give Love the largest roster of any local black entrepreneur, a parallel to Melman’s Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises.

But the reality is that Love is not Melman. He’s a guy from a low-income, predominantly black neighborhood (the South Side’s Greater Grand Crossing area) intent on changing the landscape of his childhood from one littered with Golden Arches to one alive with healthy food options. He’s a guy who opened his first restaurant, Quench, in 2001 with $10,000 he stacked up $10 at a time by selling the entirety of his DVD collection. He’s a man who made some questionable business decisions along the way, who has been burned by some of the ex-felons and recovering addicts he’d decided to hire on an impulse. He’s a man who at one point found himself homeless. And he’s a man who’s had a hell of a time convincing his fellow South Siders that a turkey burger can be delicious.

Love is indeed climbing the mountain on which Rich Melman sits as king, but to say the climb is a difficult one is an understatement. He’s found out that the ambition to effect change with limited resources is easier to come by than the change itself. But he hasn’t been deterred. Love didn’t set out to just open restaurants, but specifically to reprogram decades of poor eating habits brought on by little to no healthful dining options in Chicago’s intensely segregated, underserved communities.

“I went into this with the goal of offering a transitional diet,” Love says. From its inception, Quench has maintained a “no beef, no pork” mantra, replacing those fatty, high-sodium meats with salads and options such as a blackened chicken wrap and grilled fish with roasted vegetables. After a year of moderate success with his first restaurant (although still supplementing his income as a barber), Love expanded with Black Wok, a stir-fry concept he believed in enough to max out his credit cards just to get the doors open. Fajitas (a beef-free, pork-free Mexican spot), Honey Q’d (a barbecue joint serving smoked turkey rather than pork) and Italian Soul came next. One by one, each concept—other than Quench—folded, victims of what Love now deems “being too progressive for the reality of their location.”

“I lost a lot,” Love remembers. “Wiped myself out. Ended up not even having a place to live. Went through a really dark time. Now I realize there are weaknesses in that, in not planning long-term.”

That realization came, in part, from a meeting with Rich Melman himself. “It was one of the greatest experiences of my life. He said to me, ‘The next time you have investors, have working investors,’ and he stressed to me that the secret is management. So off of that meeting, I went on a quest to find better leaders.”

He found them in like-minded entrepreneurs, people with similar ambitions to open restaurants that would fill a void in the black community. Robert and Connie Kincaid were finding success serving breakfast and lunch in their bright and cheery 5 Loaves Eatery in South Shore, so Love persuaded them to open a sister spot in the space that formerly housed Black Wok. He then brought Stephanie Hart into the fold, turning his short-lived Wing’n It carryout concept into her Brown Sugar Bakery—which, while not necessarily a healthy choice, was a badly needed addition to the neighborhood. When the successful bakery relocated to a larger place nearby, Love partnered with a man who goes by Brother Tim to convert the empty-again space into Brother Tim’s Vegetarian Fast Food. Suddenly, Love was no longer alone in his climb. His attempts at the restaurant game became part of a bigger picture, one he christened the I Love Food Group. He appointed Shango Butler (a Johnson & Wales culinary-school grad with two decades of experience) the executive chef of the coalition, and the two set about bringing together the most popular dishes of each of Love’s past projects and adding them to the menu at the still-plugging-along Quench. They brought the “transitional diet” to more areas in need, opening Quenches in Bronzeville, Ashburn Gresham, Austin (with partner Shawn Taylor) and, most recently, Blue Island. And they’re aiming to open more—possibly on the North Side and in the Loop.

“It didn’t come without challenges, but my concept is strong now, I have great leadership now, I have structure now, my revenues are more solid now,” Love says. “And now I can show that we don’t just belong in the black community—we belong, period.”

LOVE’S SHACKS
Brother Tim’s Vegetarian 622 E 71st St (773-483-4433)
Brown Sugar Bakery 328 E 75th St (773-224-6262)
5 Loaves Eatery 405 E 75th St (773-873-6666)
Quench 616 E 79th St (773-874-3278); 2236 E 71st St (773-493-7685); 5815 W Madison St (773-287-3663); 915 W 87th St (773-483-1711); 4653 S Michigan Ave (773-538-6800); 12601 S Western Ave, Blue Island (708-293-8700)

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