This is read by an automated voice. Please report any issues or inconsistencies here.
See more from the L.A. Times in Google Search. Set us as preferred
It’s lunchtime at Fountain Grains & Greens in East Hollywood, a counter-service restaurant where customers increasingly prefer their rice and vegetable bowls piled high with hunks of chicken or steak.
More and more, diners are leaning into “proteinmaxxing,” the viral health trend that promotes increased protein intake with the goal of boosting metabolism, decreasing appetite and increasing muscle mass.
As orders flood into the restaurant via online food delivery services and a walk-up window, a butcher slices through whole chickens while one cook flips thin slabs of steak and chicken on a grill. Another builds rainbow-colored bowls overflowing with blackened chicken, rice, leafy greens, fresh vegetables and other thoughtfully placed garnishes.
Many of the restaurant’s customers pay extra for double or triple add-ons of eggs, chicken or steak.
Daniel Rasmussen is a Fountain Grains & Greens regular who tries to consume 190 to 200 grams of protein each day, roughly half of which he can get through adding a chicken breast and egg to his bowl.
“I’m trying to hit 100, 120 grams a day,” said Vera Iwanoff, who often orders the restaurant’s market bowl with extra chicken or steak to meet her daily protein goal. Like Rasmussen, she doesn’t use the proteinmaxxing label, but said, “I’ve never thought about protein this much in my life.”
Protein consumption is also a priority for the Trump administration. This year, the federal government’s recommended daily allowance of protein was set at 1.2 to 1.6 grams per kilogram or 80 to 110 grams for a 150-pound adult, up from the longstanding RDA of 0.8 grams per kilogram or approximately 55 grams of protein per day for a 150-pound adult. In announcing the change, Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. declared, “We are ending the war on protein.”
Since opening Fountain Grains & Greens two years ago, co-owner Arda Jooharian said she has seen a shift in how customers order. “Sales of our proteins and modifiers have increased 300 to 400%. They’ll substitute out three ounces of chicken and get a full chicken breast, which is eight ounces of chicken.”
Here’s how one of L.A.’s freshest new restaurants makes grains, greens and veggies sing — and how home cooks can replicate its grain bowls and salads.
Jinell Singletary, owner of Urban Comfort Foods in Carson, has also seen a change in how her older, majority Black customer base orders.
“Black men are definitely ordering more protein,” she said. “So much so that we had to create a policy around it [to charge for protein add-ons] because it wasn’t something that we considered at first.”
Last November, Sweetgreen restaurants briefly offered a Protein Max Protein Bowl that claimed to contain 106 grams of protein. The fast-casual chain still offers an entire section of protein plates in addition to its classic bowls. Chipotle has undergone a similar shift, now offering a “high protein menu,” with some bowls made in collaboration with major athletes.
At Urban Comfort Foods Kitchen, the customizable bowl restaurant is reimagined with African diaspora food.