Thursday, March 28, 2024

Modmarket makes healthy dining its mission

The idea for the latest newcomer to Flower Mound’s restaurant mecca — Modmarket — mushroomed from the minds of partners Anthony Pigliacampo and Rob McColgan, who were looking for healthy ways to dine out in Denver.

Eight eateries later, Modmarket is moving into the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area with four locations, the first officially opening Sept. 9 in the Highlands Plaza shopping center in front of Academy Sports on the southeast corner FM 407 and Chinn Chapel. Other locations will open soon, including in Plano in October, Preston Hollow by the end of the year and Southlake by next spring.

What makes this restaurant unique is the simple concept behind the culinary offering: Everything is farm fresh and made inside the restaurant from scratch. In short, the only processed items are the ketchup and mustard, which Pigliacampo decided would be OK.

But the salad greens, fruits, vegetables, meats and even the salad dressings are all created onsite at each restaurant.

The former mechanical engineer and private wealth manager were eating out a lot and not finding the foods they wanted to maintain their healthy lifestyles.

“I was unable to get what I wanted,” Pigliacampo said. The two put their heads together and Modmarket was born.

For instance, a healthy meal of roasted chicken, arugula salad with blue cheese dressing and roasted vegetables sounds good, he said, but it wasn’t on anyone’s menu.

That meal is now one of many at Modmarket, which marinates steaks in the mornings and cooks them slowly to have them ready to go when ordered that day. Every morning, the kitchen chefs break out the eggs, oils and other ingredients to whip up fresh dressings.

“It’s real food,” he said, adding the menu offers the kinds of meal many would like to cook for themselves at home but simply don’t have the time.

As they developed the concept, the business partners soon realized their challenges would not be in finding fresh foods but in finding employees who could cook from scratch.

“Our job is we teach people how to take raw ingredients and turn it into a healthy meal,” he said.
The restaurant also creates an atmosphere similar to dining at home or at a friend’s house, offering items in a comfortable setting using the same dinnerware.

“Part of it is not just about the food, it’s about the dining experience,” he said.

Though market research played a part in choosing Texas as the next place for the restaurant concept, Pigliacampo said the determining factor was that he liked Texas and decided if he was going to spend time expanding anywhere, he’d rather spend it in Texas than anywhere else.

“It feels a lot like Denver without the mountains,” he said.

After opening the first eight locations in Denver, Pigliacampo said that when his wife is out of town, he’ll find himself eating every meal at Modmarket.  In the past five years since opening the first location, not a day has gone by where he hasn’t eaten a meal at Modmarket.

“We created the place we wanted to eat at.”

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