The Kitchen owners are lauded for farm-to-table leadership in Entrepreneur magazine

The Kitchen

When Kimbal Musk and Hugo Matheson opened their newest restaurant, Boulder's Kitchen [Next Door], earlier this year, Musk was clear that the new space is about expanding the farm-to-table concept, which the flagship Kitchen pioneered, into something everyone can take part in: "We think that everyone would choose farm-to-table if they had the means and the time," he said just before [Next Door] opened. "We want [Next Door] to give the community an inexpensive farm-to-table option that someone could get even if they only had ten minutes for lunch."

That goal landed the two a major shout-out in this month's Entrepreneur magazine -- as well as a home-subscriber cover shot for Musk -- which credits them as the founding fathers of the farm-to-table movement.

The story details the rise of the Kitchen in the days before farm-to-table had become a popular buzzword, outlining how the pair sourced from local farmers and, along with the restaurants that followed in its footsteps, created a market that encouraged more people to establish sustainable farms in the area. The co-dependent relationship, says the article, helped grow Boulder's interest in locally grown food -- spawning the massive Boulder Farmers' Market, for instance, as well as a restaurant group that serves 7,000 people per week.

And there's no slowing down.

In the article, Matheson also says that he and Musk plan to expand their growing number of restaurants into five Kitchen outposts around the country -- and an unlimited number of [Next Doors]. They'll begin in Denver, where another location of the original Kitchen is planned for the Gumbo's space at 16th and Wazee.

In the meantime, Musk and Matheson are expanding their ties to school gardens and the fight against childhood obesity. Musk will speak at TedX in Boulder on Saturday, September 24, where, says Courtney Walsh, spokeswoman for the restaurant, he'll detail steps in showing how school gardens help prevent the obesity epidemic from spreading.