Native Foods Café

Co-owners Daniel Dolan and wife Andrea McGinty (founder of the It’s Just Lunch dating service) are showing they’re serious about mainstreaming this vegan concept, known for clothing housemade tempeh, seitan and tofu in inexpensive, familiar dishes such as meatball subs and bacon cheeseburgers. In the past three years, they’ve secured $25 million in funding, hired former Chipotle CFO John Miller and moved their headquarters to a Chicago hub in the center of the country. As Dolan, who purchased the chain with McGinty in 2009, told Crain’s Chicago Business in April, “In the second half of the year, we’ll open one [restaurant] about every three weeks, and by January, we’ll start opening two a month.”