Boom. They did it. Late last night, with just two days to the deadline, restaurateurs Roy Choi and Daniel Patterson reached the ambitious $100,000 crowdfunding goal for their "revolutionary" fast food concept Loco'L, making it the most successful Indiegogo food campaign of all time.
Roy Choi and Daniel Patterson's Loco'L Campaign Gets Fully Funded
Choi and Patterson have their sights set on the fast food industry. They believe that a meal that's easy and affordable can also be delicious and wholesome. The idea behind Loco'L, according to the Indiegogo campaign, is "revolutionary fast food made with real ingredients to nourish the body, soul, and community."
It's a daunting task, but they've already their first two locations set for Los Angeles' Watts and San Francisco's Tenderloin neighborhoods, with more locations on the way. And now that they're fully funded, there's no stopping them. Hopefully, this is the start of a fast food revolution.
Here's some more information about what they're trying to do:
The Loco'l Vision
Our vision with Loco'l is to create a fast food concept that's delicious, but do it with the heart of a chef. As chefs, we're approaching it just like we would another restaurant - design, function, systems, fee and costs, organizations, sourcing, product, farmers, ingredients, recipes, training, all that stuff. Then on the other side of it is being very aware of what fast food is and what it's become in America, and why it's so important, popular, and powerful. Not trying to throw all of those things away.
The inspiration for Loco'l came from our previous cooking efforts. Daniel started a non-profit, The Cooking Project, to offer free classes, teaching young people how to cook and the value of gathering around the table. While volunteering and teaching people from the streets how to cook good food inexpensively, and the value of gathering around the table. So many of the kids had subsisted their whole lives on processed food, and it was a revelation to see how positively they responded to real food that they made themselves.
Then he met Roy, co-founder of Kogi—food trucks that serve tasty, hard-to-categorize food. As Kogi’s reputation and success grew, so did Roy’s drive to feed more people. He began opening brick and mortar places that improved their communities, like 3 Worlds Cafe, a fruit and juice bar in South Central.
They laid the foundation for a new fast food concept, and announced it to a cheering audience of fellow chefs last August at MAD4 Symposium. Full video here:
Congratulations to the Loco'l crew. I can't wait to see what they're cooking up. If you're reading this in time, you've still got an opportunity to pitch. For further information, and to make a donation, head over to Indiegogo.
