Health Food and Personal Attention on the Menu at The Well

At the heart of food, quite often is a recipe.

So what makes a good recipe for success on the Wilton food scene?

1 serving organic wholesomeness
1/2 cup established customer following
1 whole fresh morsel of catering and nutrition experience
3/4 cup energy infused with new owner’s revitalization
pinch of local, home-grown charm
2 tbsp. personal service

Mix well and serve immediately.

What is this dish called? The Well, the new name chosen by Kathy Helms when she bought the Wilton Organic Gourmet from the store’s longtime owner, Peter Lowenthal.

“I had a whole food cleansing business as a nutritional counselor, and that was growing and expanding. I was looking for space. I did want a little retail, and I had been a customer of Peter’s for several years. I talked to him and he was ready to retire–so we decided to buy,” Kathy said recently.

Even though she took on the challenge shortly after Mrs. Green’s, a larger organic chain food store came into the Wilton market last fall, Kathy had faith in herself and the store. She’s blended adhering to the store’s reputation for personal attention to customers with her own experience running a 30-year catering business when facing any competition.

“We try to make it up with kindness, yummy food and personalized care. This is a home-town, hippie health food store where you can get people to talk to. Pete had a huge following of people who’d been coming in for years,” she explained, adding, “People know and trust my food. I knew I would be able to bring people. There’s been great feedback, we’ve increased the prepared foods by a lot. Our small-batch homemade prepared foods have really drawn people in. What is made is sold that day, and it’s natural, organic. We always try to have something that’s gluten-free, something that’s vegetarian and something that’s vegan. Many people come in for lunch and say, ‘ooh, that looks good too,’ and they take something else home for dinner.”

In addition to the prepared meals, The Well stocks health food staples and sugar-free snacks, and the store has a large clientele following  who go there for their nutritional supplements. Also popular is the store’s juice bar, offering a wide variety of fresh pressed fruit and vegetable juices and smoothies. Helms is also branching the store into natural skincare and makeup lines.

“I think women are starting to realize that everything you do every single day, you really need to know what’s in it. Deodorant, moisturizer. It matters just as much as what you’re eating. The products are getting so much better.”

Kathy also changed the store’s look, giving it a cleaner, more updated feel. Some of the metal shelving in the center of the store is on casters, so that it can rolled to the side for the occasional customer workshops they conduct there. “Everything from why use fish oils, to treating Lyme disease, to how to manage a family when only one person is gluten free.”

The store’s name change to The Well allowed Kathy to spruce up the exterior with a new awning above the front door–in bright lime green.

“I heard something like 24,000 people drive up and down Rt. 7 every day.  And hopefully that bright green sign is pretty eye-popping.”

Smart business in more ways than one:  She does a lot of work with local companies to carry locally-made products as well. “We have a shelf called ‘Local Love.’ We have a local honey that’s really fabulous. There’s a girl that makes a body scrub for us. We have a DEET-free bug spray, herbal remedies, teas—we probably have a dozen local things, and I’d like to see it be two dozen, I’d like it to be a lot of things.”

As a health counselor, one-on-one guidance and local reputation based on experience is something Kathy says she places a lot of importance on.

“Growing up in Westport, I knew 90 percent of the shop owners on Main street.  Nowadays, it’s hard to find a privately-owned, local business. I have to make sure customers trust me.” That’s whether she’s helping them find what they need in the store or through her own nutritional counseling practice, meeting with people at home or in the store.

One cornerstone of the Well’s business is Kathy’s 3- and 5-day cleanse programs.

“Our vegan cleanse, it’s three days of eating greens. And some orange. We’re filling you with the nutrients that you need, weight loss is always a part of it, and detoxing and resting the digestive system. We also encourage mindful exercises, and we put participants on some supplements as well. It helps people get off medications and change their lifestyles.”

Helms has also created programs with other Wilton businesses, including Hello Yoga, collaborating on a vegan food challenge with customers the businesses share. In addition The Well has partnered with other like-minded businesses, like Moore Physical Therapy.

But as much as she’s adding some new things Kathy is also continuing many of the things that Pete did. “All of the sandwiches are exactly the same, the tahini, the tuna. I wasn’t going to mess with them. We’re just selling more of them now. And I’ve added to that.”

Thankfully they’ve been discovered by many of the employees in the corporations along Rt. 7.

“We’ve really tapped into the local lunch business,” Kathy explained. We’re going to do a program for the local businesses, if someone in an office gets together an order of eight or more lunches, their lunch is on us.”

The Well  is located at 33 Danbury Rd. It’s open Monday-Saturday 9 a.m.-6 p.m. and is closed Sundays.