The vision of Café Avalaun is brought to life through the story of Brian and Jennifer Doyle that starts when they met at the age of 14. The café is named after Brian’s late mother, Avalaun Harrill Doyle, who died when Brian was 7 years old. Avalaun was an eclectic artist working across many mediums including poetry, oil paints, watercolor, sculpture, singing and songwriting. When Brian and Jennifer met years later, Brian quickly became part of Jennifer’s family and grew close with her mother, Suzan Smith. Suzan was also a talented artist, with her hand in ceramics, drawing, and writing. She was passionate about cooking gourmet meals for her family. Her relationship with Brian fostered even more of his love for cooking that was born in him from a very early age.
Together they enjoyed going on culinary adventures and challenging themselves to create new recipes using the unique ingredients they would collect in their travels. Jennifer’s mother Suzan also passed away too young at the age of 49, on the 2nd birthday of Brian and Jennifer’s 1st son, Logan.
It was a dream of Brian and Jennifer’s to partner with Suzan and eventually open a café focused on fresh baked breads and homemade soups, which were Suzan’s specialties. Brian and Jennifer believe that it is the influence of their mothers that instilled both a love for creativity and a passion for food that brought them to the vision that is Café Avalaun.
The vision of Café Avalaun is to invoke the spirit of their mothers through art. Tributes to them will be apparent throughout. Expressing their personality, hearts, and minds, Brian and Jennifer believe in sustainable considerations throughout all facets of the business with upcycling and reclaimed materials. The café features an art installation created by Jennifer’s cousin, Carole Werder. Her style is rooted in heavy layers of impasto pigment, bright colors, and sometimes popsicle sticks that comprise her paintings. Carole’s art examines the psychological condition and provides a biographical narrative of the subjects of her work.
WHY GLUTEN FREE?
The menu at Café Avalaun is 100% gluten free. This focus on gluten free foods is born out of their own family’s need to be gluten free. Their oldest son, Logan was diagnosed with autism at age 2, and has been gluten free for 16 years and the rest of the family went gluten free in 2011. Around that time, Jennifer had a medical induced debilitating condition that left her unable to walk or work for 3 months.
Doctors couldn’t offer any solutions. Brian quickly realized that diet held the key to her recovery and so began a journey to wellness for them both via an anti-inflammatory diet. After the diagnosis of gluten intolerance they both lost weight and had numerous gains in health going on a primal-style diet. Brian also became a certified health coach from the Institute of Integrative Nutrition. Since then, Chef Brian realized he could no longer work with gluten in his professional life and avoids it for his own health. This had dramatic changes for his career and professional life as a chef.