‘It’s as close to nature as possible.’ Lil Duck Kombucha owner to open a cafe
Lil Duck’s Treehouse Cafe will open May 4 in West Columbia, serving meals made with all locally-sourced ingredients and to match any diet, according to owner Debey Hancock.
The cafe will be in a newly redone, outdoor section of Lil Duck Kombucha at 1119 Methodist Park Road, across from Aldi.
Hancock started Lil Duck Kombucha five years ago at Soda City Market in Columbia. Since then, she has been selling her kombucha (a type of fermented tea) so much that she opened a storefront in March 2020.
Lil Duck Kombucha’s bricks and mortar store was doing well for two days, Hancock said, before COVID-19 closures sent the business in a months-long tailspin.
Now, Lil Duck is reopened as mostly a “kombucherie” as Hancock calls it, where she can brew the kombucha to sell at the market, online or for home deliveries. Hancock saw a need for more restaurants that cater to all diets in one place, and decided to start one.
“There are some places where you can go and get a really good vegan meal, but if your husband’s a carnivore, what do you do?” said Hancock.
At Lil Duck’s Treehouse, “vegan, keto, gluten free and carnivores can all have lunch together,” Hancock said.
While Lil Duck will serve four different types of burgers, it will also have four different salad options, sandwiches and signature toasts. Hancock buys grass-fed beef from a farm in Columbia, grows the herbs used in cooking and makes many of her breads and sauces with kombucha.
“I know that while they’re eating that sloppy cheeseburger, that it’s the best cheeseburger— how it was raised, how it was processed. That’s important to me,” Hancock said. “It’s as close to nature as possible, is what we’re going for.”
The cafe will not serve milk products, but rather will have almond, oat and coconut milks on hand for coffee drinks. Hancock will also use natural sweeteners like honey instead of sugar. None of the food at Lil Duck is processed.
“I always say, ‘If it came from a plant, eat it. If it was made in a plant, don’t.”
Hancock started making kombucha for her daughter in 2014 when she was diagnosed with breast cancer. She researched how diet affects health and studied to become a functional nutritionist. In her research, Hancock discovered how kombucha could boost the immune system and promote natural healing within the body.
Lil Duck’s Treehouse will have a selection of kombucha on tap, water kefir (fermented water) and frozen drinks like margaritas made with kombucha.
This story was originally published April 29, 2021 at 11:36 AM.
