MADISON, Wis. — Beyond the blueprints, lies a visionary chef’s heart and soul.
"My biggest wish is just be able to be open in time for next Christmas, to be able to start feeding everybody, " Chef Dave Heide said about the community-focused, pay-what-you-can non-profit restaurant.
The cordon bleu-educated cuisine guru believes if anyone can do it, he can.
'I graduated top of my class and I've been cooking for 20 years," Heide said.
He made the decision to pursue his dream in the last five years.
"With this kitchen, we will be able to provide food for the entirety of Dane County," Heide said inside the restaurant's new home: a former furniture store on Verona Road.
Named for not just for Robin Hood, but his youngest son, Little John’s developed with grant funding for veteran retraining and designed for feeding the most at-risk communities.
"People who are getting evicted we've got people dying covid who've lost their jobs, we've got people who need food now, and they don't have access to it and their families counting on it and they're already worried about how they're using it to afford anything for Christmas, let alone food," he said.
By taking grocer and farmer surplus, while cooking with creativity and care, the top chef's team can build on his non-profit pop-up success. He proved it could be done at his flagship Liliana’s where he feeds 600 Boys & Girls Club families weekly.
"Now we've had seven cooks in back working three days straight, trying to put these meals out, and if and when we can get funded for a Little John's, we could do the same thing with one chef by himself in one day," he said.
Especially in a space the size of Camp Randall.
"It's a big open blank canvas for us to put everything where we want it to be. And with that does come a cost," he said about a need for $6M for March renovations on the location.
"You know the way I've looked at it, there are 600,000 people in Dane County," Chef Heide said. "And if everyone just chips in 10 bucks, we're there... and how can we make this so that this isn't just my community, this is everyone's community and how can we all together, chip in to help out.”
Because the kind hearted chef believes quality meals made with love matter so much more than something thrown together. As Little John's becomes the place for the chef’s signature recipe of compassion over profit.
"My goals, just cut down those walls and break down those barriers and get rid of the red tape and just have open source available food for anyone who needs it," Heide said.
You can learn how to make a Christmas donation to support Little John’s at https://www.littlejohnsrestaurant.com.