PRINTLeigh Lockhart: The green thinker
Owner, Main Squeeze Natural Foods Cafe and Juice Bar
Laura Herring/Missourian
Since the opening of Main Squeeze, Leigh Lockhart has composted more than one million pounds of food waste.
November 12, 2009 | 12:00 a.m. CST
*CORRECTION: In an earlier version of this article, Leigh Lockhart's age and time spent in Columbia was wrong.
Age: 44 | Time spent in Columbia: 12 years*
In the heart of America, where top sirloin and beef brisket are king, a vegetarian establishment has settled comfortably into the food and restaurant circuit. For 12 years, Leigh Lockhart has promoted sustainable-business ideas through Main Squeeze Natural Foods Cafe and Juice Bar, a colorful, hand-decorated restaurant downtown where recycled chic meets California eclectic.
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After graduating with a degree in art history from the University of Missouri-St. Louis, the Kirkwood native found herself forced to answer the question “Now what?” Instead of pursuing a career in art, she headed to the West Coast to explore the culture. She found a natural fit in farming, gardening and sampling fresh juices at juice bars down the California coast. When she returned to Missouri, she wanted to see if the concept of a natural juice bar would catch on.
Although the downtown eatery and juice bar stands out with its brightly colored awning, Main Squeeze’s less-than-auspicious start came via the shop next door, Lakota Coffee Company. Lockhart first opened her juice bar inside Lakota as a microbusiness. “It’s just kind of grown into what it is,” she says.
Twelve years later, Main Squeeze has become an uncanny home for the local vegetarian community. Nestled in The District, it’s Columbia’s only restaurant that doesn’t serve meat.
“A lot of times you’ll see these really health-conscious girls come in, and their boyfriends will come in carrying a meatball sub from Subway,” Lockhart says.
The scraps from the veggie sandwiches, soups, smoothies and juices served at Main Squeeze find their way to a compost pile near Lockhart’s home. Since the restaurant opened, she’s composted more than one million pounds of food waste.
“We try to make decisions based on what seems sustainable to us,” Lockhart says.
From the chair cushions woven out of newspaper sleeves to the mosaic-covered tables made from Main Squeeze’s broken dishes, Lockhart’s used every part of Main Squeeze as a way to creatively reuse things and make the impossible possible.
That’s exactly what Lockhart has, at times, done with Main Squeeze’s financial situation. Although the restaurant brings in streams of customers, it’s not consistently turning a profit, and though Lockhart’s worked to keep the restaurant viable, financial troubles almost caused Main Squeeze to close its doors in November 2008.
In an effort to save the restaurant, Lockhart appealed to her customers for help. It started with a few e-mails. Then, her customers took it into her own hands. “They gave me personal loans,” she says. “There was no money available.” She used those loans to keep the business afloat but says the generosity of her customers speaks to something greater.
“When customers care about it so much they’re willing to (dig into) their own pockets, that’s the final frontier of sustainability,” she says.
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