We recently connected with Danielle Desrosiers and have shared our conversation below.

Danielle, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. To kick things off, we’d love to hear about things you or your brand do that diverge from the industry standard.

At The Green Plate, we are not only a 100% Gluten Free cafe. Our goal is to provide healthy, flavorful meals using whole food ingredients. Preparing everything from scratch, while using whole food ingredients has allowed us to better inform our customers of the ingredients in our items. We have a fast casual concept, so people can dine in, or “grab and go”. Our diverse menu includes items such as Smoothies, Salads, Wraps, sweet treats and more. Our Build a Bowl and Signature Bowls along with our Pizzas are most popular. You can create your own bowl or pizza or choose one of our favorites. Our Green Plate @ Home program allows customers to enjoy our frozen meals, smoothie packs, cookies, sauces, and seasonings in the comfort of their home anywhere in the country. This is not your typical cafe. We offer individuals and families the opportunity to eat healthy, whether they have a dietary restriction, allergy, a health enthusiast, or none of the above. The concept allows those with gluten intolerances allergies and dietary restrictions a safe place to eat. Almost all our menu can be made Vegan/Vegetarian or Dairy Free. Our menu is fun, inviting, and exciting for any palate. Kids can enjoy pizza, or whole food smoothie without knowing it’s “healthy”. Our Mac Daddy, Taco Burrito and Steak and Cheese bowls are perfect for the “meat & potato’s palate. They are all mouthwatering and guilt free because, we use healthier ingredients without compromising on taste. When once we used to possibly only have one member of a family choosing to eat with us, now, their whole family enjoys our food. For example, the gluten free mom would come get her take out from us and pick up pizzas for the kids and her husband somewhere else. Now she comes in and picks up her meal, a pizza for her son, a vegan bowl for her daughter and a steak and cheese bowl for her husband. She now gets the family size frozen meals for those nights she doesn’t feel like going out or cooking. It’s a win win for everyone.
Currently, I am in the process of franchising The Green Plate, so more people can enjoy healthy, fresh, yet delicious food near them. I am excited to grow my business and allow others to be able to offer a healthy alternative restaurant for people all over to appreciate. I have so many customers that come from out of town and mention that they wish there was a place like ours near them. The fact that we offer so many options under one roof is exciting to them. Gluten free, vegan options, smoothies, frozen meals, build a bowl; there is something for everyone here.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My name is Danielle Desrosiers. I am the creator and owner of The Green Plate. I was blessed to be raised in a family that provided healthy meals, of which most of the ingredients were grown from my grandfather’s own garden. I feel I have always been passionate about health and cooking. I believe my passion for cooking began at this young age sitting in the kitchen with my mom peeling potatoes or slicing veggies.

As a young adult, I became a massage therapist and have continued my license for nearly 20 years. My focus was helping people become proactive about their health and taking care of themselves to alleviate illness. During these years of helping people, I noticed more and more individuals suffering from dietary restrictions, food allergies, diabetes, obesity etc.

Although I enjoyed massage, I knew my true passion was cooking. Given my background of healthy meals and cooking as a child, I decided to create a concept catering to ANYONE, but specifically paying attention to those with dietary restrictions. The concept was born in 2014, and the café opened in November of 2017. My focus is to create healthy meals, using whole food ingredients, without compromising on flavor. The entire menu is 100% gluten free. I have incorporated many vegan/vegetarian options along with dairy free options. I offer frozen heat & eat meals for everyone. Prepared fresh, packaged, and labeled with heat instructions, this is a great option for people who don’t want to cook, don’t like to cook, or don’t have time to cook. They became so popular, that recently I created The Green Plate at Home program; a nationwide delivery program that allows anyone in the country to enjoy these frozen meals in the comfort of their home.

My vision is to feed our families, friends and community, delicious, freshly prepared meals that will make them feel good about eating healthy. I am committed to supporting the communities we serve, and I am a proud member of the Blackstone Valley Chamber of Commerce, as well as a growing list of “shop local” grass roots organizations. I was on the BVCC events committee for many years, assisting in preparing and organizing all the events we would have through the years. In 2017, I assisted the BVCC in creating a networking group called Valley Business Network; a referral group of the chamber. I took on the role of President for some time and our focus has been to encourage B2B networking and best practices for its members. In 2019, I received the John McArthur Community Commerce Innovation Award at the BVCC annual meeting. I have been recognized in the community for my support to the surrounding towns and personal time spent helping others.

When I opened the cafe in 2017, one of our biggest challenges was the fact that many people thought we were strictly a vegan restaurant. In a small town filled with pizza shops and Chinese restaurants, the idea of a healthy café was scary to some. I kept my head down, continued to create delicious meals using whole food ingredients and let word of mouth do the work. Those people who were coming in, LOVED our food. They LOVED our concept. They LOVED the cozy feel of the cafe. Word DID start to spread, and I was hearing people saying things like “Oh that’s your place? I’ve heard great things about it”. Or “I just tried it the other day and it was the best food I’ve ever had”. Or “You are the talk of the town. My family goes there all the time”.

One thing I am proud of more than anything is that I am a woman owned business. I believe women empower other women, through support, networking, and helping to motivate each other. It is a strong web that is woven when women get together and grow businesses together. I am blessed to be surrounded by beautiful, empowering, women business owners!
A few years ago, through the BVCC, I was able to meet our now former lieutenant governor Karen Polito along with other local women business owners to discuss our experiences, challenges and possible help from our governor and legislation to assist women owned businesses.
In 2021 I was featured as a woman owned business on a woman run local TV program called Women of Worth. I have attached the video for your viewing. (To save you time you can start watching at about 18 min in). https://northbridgetv.org/CablecastPublicSite/show/4270?channel=1

I have been able to hold fast to the relationships I built in the community, while instilling that goal with my team and my customers. I have always felt that taking care of your staff first, then your customers while holding strong to your passion are the key points to having a thriving business. That is why my staff is my TEAM. Building positive and thriving relationships around you while creating a great concept and product is just as important. We make it a point to get to know our customers, remember what they order, inform them of the ingredients we use, but most of all, connect with those who have dietary restrictions and help them to feel comfortable eating out.

I am currently marketing The Green Plate for franchise opportunities. Over the years, I have provided customers with diverse options while at the same time, creating a duplicatable business model. My intention; so more people can enjoy healthy, fresh, yet delicious food near them. I am excited to grow my business and allow others to be able to offer a healthy alternative restaurant for people all over to appreciate. The fact that we offer so many options under one roof is exciting. There is something for everyone here and we can’t wait to grow and let more people enjoy what our customers rave about.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

I think we can all share a story about the effects COVID had on our business. For me, when the world shut down, I stayed open. I had worked so hard for 3 years to build my business and create a name for myself that I didn’t want to lose that edge. So I adjusted our hours, provided curbside pickup, delivery options and focused on how else we could grow our menu and business. It was during this time I decided to add pizzas. I created the same options customers had for our Build a Bowl and added some Signature Pizzas. COVID was certainly challenging, but it allowed me to take the time to improve on our menus, marketing and our website. I hired a photographer to take pictures of all our menu items and insert them on our new menu boards and paper menus. This also allowed me to partner with a new website platform which enhanced our customer view and interaction. Customers can now write a review on the exact item they ate right on the website menu. We added online ordering as well which certainly helped grow our sales. During this time, I also took the opportunity to focus on the duplication of the business which in turn assisted in the franchise model.

Any advice for managing a team?

Managing a team and maintaining high morale can be challenging at times. I try to put myself in the shoes of the employee and ask what would I want out of my job or how would I want to be treated in a certain situation. I also feel setting the example is extremely important. If you want your team to care about what they do, show them YOU care about what YOU do. Be there to help, not just dictate orders to them. Only ask of them what you would as of yourself. Engage and treat your team with respect. They should work WITH you, not FOR you. My staff is always referred to as my TEAM. They are not my employees, or workers. As the saying goes, there is no I in team. If I don’t have a staff, I won’t have customers or a business left to own.
In order to create a successful team, in addition to the above mentioned, I believe that there MUST be a strong communication. So if we run out of something, write it on the shopping list. If a task needs to be done, ask, don’t just expect it to be done. Our team is trained to learn all aspects of the business. For example, they all know how to take orders, answer phone call, cash out a customer, do the dishes, assist the cook, clean the front end and the kitchen. No one is hired for one “position”. Tips from our customers are shared between the staff. Based on the hours that they work, they receive a monthly “bonus”. determined by the tips collected. The service and food we provide for our customers is done by all of us. Therefore, not one person should be rewarded because a customer gave a very nice tip or another customer did not tip at all. We are cafe style not a full service restaurant so tips are not expected, but appreciated.
I will always reward my team for the work they do. We all work well together but sometimes it can get stressful. I will take my team out for a dinner on me or do a teambuilding exercise together. It is always something fun, and not work related.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.thegreenplatellc.com
• Instagram: thegreenplatellc
• Facebook: thegreenplate