Ask Me Anything: Rachael Hoover Lekic

Martha Hoover’s middle child, a graduate of the University of Gastronomic Sciences in Italy, is readying the family biz’s next addition for a summer opening.

What’s your favorite of the Patachou restaurants?
Petite Chou in Broad Ripple. We go there every morning for breakfast.

We’ve been hearing about Public Greens for a couple of years. What’s taking so long?
Petite Chou flooded, and we had to do a total renovation. And then we started working on the Patachou Foundation, and that is when the whole concept of Public Greens really changed. It’s still going to be a restaurant, but now it has a special mission.

What is it?
All of the profits from the restaurant go to the foundation, which feeds local children impacted by homelessness and hunger. And we have a chicken coop there to show people we can take food waste and feed it to the chickens, and the chicken can make an egg, and we can eat the egg.

Guilty foodie pleasure?
Red wine. Italian wine.

Did you ever get to eat junk food growing up?
My aunt would buy me Hostess CupCakes. We used to also love Long’s doughnuts.

Tell us something about your mom nobody knows.
She loves the Beastie Boys. And murder shows.

This article appeared in the June 2014 issue.