FoodChasers' Kitchen

We’ve chased food, and now it’s time to chase Our Passion and Our Dream

From two unknown people chasing good food around the world to people chasing the food we make. Over the last eight years, many of you have nudged, recommended, and some have even begged us to open a restaurant. What many of you don’t know is that we wrote a menu about 13 years ago and placed it on a bedroom wall, and pursued other goals. Due to the overwhelming positive response from our customers and followers, we decided to take a “leap of faith” and not just chase food but also chase our dream of owning a restaurant. Now we need your help to actualize our dream.

Our names are Dr. Maya and Dr. Kala Johnstone, and we started FoodChasers on Instagram eight years ago. In addition to maintaining our strong social media presence, we served as school principals for 11 years. We did not attend culinary school, and we are the product of watching our family members cook, the Food Network, and YouTube. We like to say our business/restaurant was built from Instagram, an iPhone, and followers. We took pictures of the food we either chased or made ourselves and posted them on Instagram to share with our followers. It was that easy for us. Cooking and finding good food have always been easy for us, but you know what has not been easy, opening a restaurant. As life-long learners, we love learning about operating a business, but can we keep it real for a second? To be honest, the bills are adding up, but we aren’t giving up.

FoodChasers’ Kitchen will be a new, fast-casual restaurant with dine-in seating and delivery that will provide fresh breakfast, sandwiches, and salads. The menu will feature a diverse selection that includes meals inspired by our “food travels” from around the world. FoodChasers' mission is to create an environment that encourages travel by displaying information, pictures featuring cuisine, and coffee from various places around the world.

Thus far, we have spent a considerable portion of our savings, and grateful to our immediate family for investing in our dream. Thus far, we have allocated cash toward a down payment on leasing restaurant space, leasehold improvements, and additional kitchen equipment and supplies. Now we need to raise capital for additional equipment, furniture, and improvements to the property before restaurant opening.

In addition to food, the well-being of children is our priority. Although the core function of our business is supplying food, there will be a philanthropic arm to our business. FoodChasers’ Kitchen intends to partner with Philadelphia schools to provide funding for therapeutic calming spaces for students and teachers, offer book scholarships to graduating seniors, sponsor class trips, and other charitable projects that will provide donations to school staff and students. It is our ultimate dream to partner with public schools throughout the United States.

We appreciate any monetary donations!

 Thank You!