A new restaurant in Downtown Guelph wants to prove to residents that eating clean doesn’t necessarily mean eating bland food.
“We don’t classify ourselves as a healthy restaurant, we’re more of a clean restaurant ” says Shane Gray, one founder of Rio Nectar, “But we’re not going to restrain ourselves of great tasting foods, we’re right in the middle I would say.”
Located at 5 Wyndham St. N., Rio Nectar is a fast casual restaurant that offers nutritious meals for people on the go or to dine in.
Gray opened the first Rio Nectar in Cambridge in December 2018. Since opening, he now runs the business with co-founder, Monica Tobin, who heard about Rio Nectar through a mutual friend.
He says they decided to open a location in Guelph as the city, especially the university, is known for having a lot of ‘foodies.”
“We also know that Guelph is starting to take a look at what goes into their food,” explains Gray about their decision, “And that’s what we’re about; we’re high quality without all the garbage that goes into it.”
“We thought we would be a great fit.”
Being a former paramedic for 12 years, Gray says he has seen a lot of people get sick from the food that they eat.
“So we created a menu that takes out all the stuff that makes you sick,” he says, “No processed foods, no chemicals, no salt and we just made it taste good.”
For their menu, they source their food locally and offer fresh ingredients, like real turkey for their sandwiches, instead of deli meats.
They also offer smoothies, wraps, salads, breakfast items and acai bowls with gluten-free, dairy-free, vegetarian and vegan options.
“We just use real ingredients instead of chemical fillers to get the tastes,” he says about their food, “So when people come in, they’re not thinking about eating healthy, they’re just thinking about delicious foods, so they feel good about it.”
While Gray says the community support for their service has been better than he imagined, Rio Nectar has been struggling along with other restaurants during the pandemic. To help cope, they have used government grants and offer online ordering and delivery.
“We took a hard hit,” says Gray, “With COVID, people are not ordering as much, people can’t sit down, and yet all our bills are still coming in.”
Gray adds the pandemic also put a hold on some of their community initiatives, something that is another big part of their business.
“We’re really known for our community involvement,” he says, “We’ve been involved in probably more than 25 different community charitable organizations in our first year alone.”
“We can’t do that right now, we just don’t have the funding, which is probably the hardest part.”
As they continue to serve the Guelph community, Gray hopes they can become more involved going forward. To learn more about Rio Nectar, check out their website at rionectar.ca. They are open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Monday to Friday, and 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays.
