Paleo Restaurant Feature: Shine Restaurant & Gathering Place
Shine Restaurant & Gathering Place in Boulder Colorado is owned by triplet sisters, Jennifer, Jill and Jessica Emich. It celebrates the Boulder experience and strives to keep the community alive and thriving with their dishes. The sisters serve up plates of high-vibrational Paleo, vegan and vegetarian, farm-to-table comfort food made in a 100% Gluten-Free and GMO-Free kitchen.
Shine also serves up award-winning beer from Shine Brewing Co., one of the few women owned breweries in the US, along with their hand-crafted healing Shine Potions. You can follow Shine Boulder and Jill on Instagram, and Facebook. They have a cookbook Eat.Drink.Shine coming out the end of April through Kyle Publishing. Check out their Slow Roasted Leg of Lamb with Parsnip Fries Recipe here.
Here’s an interview we did with Jill so you can find out more about them:
1. What got you interested in the Paleo lifestyle?
Jill Emich: I learned about Paleo around 5 years ago while teaching holistic nutrition classes—diving into different diets that were taking hold around the country. Paleo made sense to me and intrigued me. Although I was never a dieter, Paleo was different. It was more of a way of living and I was down to give it a whirl. I am pretty active in my day-to-day life. I try to exercise most days and am usually running around in the restaurant. I eat Paleo about 80% of the time. I am not strict but dedicated and by eating this way I feel better than I ever have. I feel energized, I sleep better, I am leaner and because of this I can participate more fully in my life.
2. What inspired you want to open a Paleo restaurant?
Shine is about 75 percent paleo. We do serve some grains, but all of our grains are soaked for very easy assimilation and digestion (which is the issue for a lot of people that eat grains). We chose to go mostly Paleo for a few reasons. First of all, Boulder is a very active place and also high in elevation, we feel it is vital that people get a lot of protein. Protein is made up of amino acids, the building blocks for maintaining muscles and muscle repair. It is also important for muscle repair to keep energy levels balanced and is needed for almost every function of the body’s health and wellbeing. So yeah, we make sure our people are well fed in that sense. Whether they are vegetarian or meat eaters, we make sure our clients are getting plenty of protein in every dish.
3. What’s the most common question you get asked from customers at your restaurant?
People say they feel really good when they eat our food, so they ask what we do that is different? We get to talking about fermentation and our holistic practices that help with digestibility and keeping your gut healthy, absorbing the beautiful local organic ingredients we work with. People are interested in where we source from and so we talk about the farms and our farmer friends.
4. How do your family and friends feel about your Paleo life?
They are supportive. They actually like to participate as well! We like to cook together and host dinner parties using ingredients from local farms. We play some good tunes, pour some good wine or tequila (paleo friendly!), or our Shine potions to gather and celebrate around food, friends and family.
5. What are three things you’ve told yourself that kept you going during your weakest moment?
1. To know that “this too shall pass”
2. That the only way out is through so have acceptance first for where you are and that will start to help you find your way.
3. TRUST that the greatest lessons come from some of the hardest moments. Pay attention, there are some gifts buried in there that will serve you well.
6. If you had a list of ‘best-kept secrets’ [websites, books, coaches] you’d recommend, which would you include and why?
I think the best-kept secret is to Listen To Your Body. Every body is different, so what works for someone else may not work for you. To take the time to listen and to respond to what works for you is really powerful. Decide on a framework that can be tailored to your individual needs depending on sensitivities, genetics, desires and simply how you FEEL. Our bottom line and the most important factor is to listen to your body and see how food makes you feel. If you know your digestion is off, your energy levels wane, and you have skin irritations, it is worth switching things up and seeing if there are changes. Your inner fire is everything. If you feel energized and inspired, life is a playground and you can engage in a playful manner.