After working on several projects and businesses together, brothers Adam and Aaron Leu came together to open The Well, a café restaurant that serves the people of Fairfield County and beyond.
The Well is a self-described modern gathering place for the whole family to eat, drink, play and live. In 2014, the brothers and their families built the business in hopes of creating a place that facilitates restoration. The goal was for everything from the food to the relationships made within The Well to be reviving.
In creating such an atmosphere, they included a large children’s play area to make the space family friendly. The same consideration went into making a carefully curated gluten-free menu that focuses on using whole foods and local ingredients.
The café is one of the few restaurants in the region that focuses on offering healthy options. The menu includes smoothies, salads, bowls, pita sandwiches, desserts and more. Most of the items are vegetarian or vegan. The kitchen uses organic ingredients whenever possible, and all the ingredients are non-genetically modified.
“We kind of had the view that we were bringing a type of food that there really wasn’t a high demand for, but we found that there was a large portion of the community that was waiting for us to come,” Adam says.
In its mission to bring quality food to the table, The Well is redefining what it means to have a scratch kitchen. The owners soak beans to make their own hummus; salad dressings are homemade, and each batch of kale is hand massaged to determine its flavor. The brothers salt and roast their own almonds. Everyday Aaron bakes the bread before 7 a.m., and Adam grinds and roasts the coffee in-house twice a week. Each latte is handcrafted using homemade syrups.
“When we cook we love using whole foods, and the flavors just naturally come out. Everything has to just taste wonderful and look wonderful,” Aaron’s wife Tricia says. “But most importantly it has to be nourishing. It’s so important to us to honestly know every ingredient,” Aaron continues.
Menu items at The Well change seasonally. In January, The Well added a breakfast menu. It’s one of the many additions that have been made since opening in 2014.
Aaron and his family live above The Well. Prior to expanding the café’s kitchen last year, he spent his mornings baking in his own kitchen. Everything on the menu was prepared with a blender, a juicer and one burner on an induction stove. Due to the warm welcome it received, The Well has been able to increase and revamp its space to better serve the needs of its customers.
While many aspects of The Well have changed, the heart behind it has not. The Well was created to support people in pursuit of a healthy lifestyle and to encourage every journey toward wellness. The owners and staff continue to choose people over profit by refusing to cut corners in making quality food to increase profitability. It all comes down to the simple desire that started it all—wanting a community to experience restoration together and wanting people to be well.
The Well is located at 203 South Broad Street and is open Monday through Friday 8 a.m.-3 p.m.