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 West Reading, PA - The story behind the new Good Eatz Green Café, West Reading, starts with a bakery.
Rick Allebach, 53, owns the café and a bakery, also called Good Eatz, which opened in 2004.
"I've been in the food business all of my life, in restaurants and food service in the health care field, so when I was looking to open a business I did research in health-food stores," he said. "In talking to store owners, I saw there was a need for good-tasting, gluten-free products, so I opened the bakery."
The bakery began with that mission of being gluten-free but it soon added all-natural to its list of culinary credits. The Sinking Spring bakery, which is not open to the public, continues to operate separately from the café at 701 Penn Ave., although the café sells the bakery's goodies.
The bakery supplies baked goods to 26 health-food retailers in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware.
"We make an average of 250 deliveries a week throughout the tri-state area," he said.
Good Eatz bakery struck a deal last summer with food-service giant Aramark, Philadelphia, to sell the baked goods in entertainment venues such as Citizen's Bank Park and the Wachovia Center, both in Philadelphia.
For people with special dietary needs, choosing a restaurant can be downright challenging.
With that in mind, Allebach sought to cater to all tastes in his restaurant. The menu is 85 percent organic, and custom orders can be created to accommodate most food allergies or needs.
 Head chef Jason Houck creates a seasonal menu that offers traditional fare as well as vegan, vegetarian, gluten-free and milk-free dishes.
The kitchen is equipped with separate food-preparation stations, one for cooking traditional foods and another for gluten-free cooking, to prevent the slightest contamination.
"Some people are very sensitive, so we have a dedicated area of the kitchen, including separate appliances, dishes and utensils, so even those affected by airborne gluten particles don't have an issue here," Allebach said.
"People have a lot of misconceptions about the kind of foods we serve," Allebach said. "They think the portions will be tiny or that everything will be flavorless or that they won't like it. I've had many people be pleasantly surprised when they taste things here and they come back for more.
"Some of them don't know what we mean by 'green café.' We use sustainable sources and offer fair-trade products. We're also green (environmentally friendly) - right down to the paint on the walls, our biodegradable take-out containers and our energy-saving appliances. Even our cleaning products are eco-friendly."
An experienced restaurateur who also worked as an institutional food-service director, Allebach can find sources for just about anything in the food business.
He said his background made it possible for Good Eatz to offer specialized foods while being kind to the Earth.
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