Episode 3: How To Start A Restaurant - Gregory Brown and Naijha Wright-Brown
About the episode:
In this episode, Brian sits down with Gregory and Naijha to discuss the process of opening up a plant-based restaurant. They explain how their vegan soul food restaurant, The Land of Kush, was born and all about the rapid growth of the business. Their story offers a great insight into what it’s like opening up a restaurant without having prior experience. From finding a space to designing a menu, Gregory and Naijha cover all you need to take your restaurant idea and make it into something successful.
About the guests:
Naijha was introduced to gardening, farming, environmentalism, sustainability, and the basics of healthy eating while spending summers in Massachusetts as a teenager. She is a native New Yorker, born in Manhattan’s lower east side and raised in the South Bronx. Naijha has an MBA in Business and is a successful serial entrepreneur, the thought of owning a restaurant never crossed her mind until she relocated to Baltimore in 2005 and met Gregory Brown. Naijha is the Marketing Director for The Land of Kush, VeganSoul Bistro, and co-creator of Vegan Soulfest and Maryland Vegan Restaurant Week. She is the Executive Director of the Black Vegetarian Society of Maryland and has a digital talk show, Naijha Speaks!
Born in what might be considered the typical African American household in Baltimore. Gregory grew up eating a typical American diet. After listening to a KRS song he began researching a new way of thinking, a new way of living, a new way of eating. He began a journey of spiritual expression which eventually led him to become a vegan; then years later creating the idea for opening the revolutionary vegan soul food restaurant called The Land of Kush.
