A new healthy eating restaurant has opened at Headington Hall.
The restaurant, Bee Healthy, first opened in 2007 as the Health Nut Cafe in the OU Health Science Center in downtown Oklahoma City.
Founders Cindy and Amir Alavi opened Health Nut after Cindy received a “life changing” multiple sclerosis diagnosis.
“The specialist told them that there were three things that were absolutely essential for them to manage if they wanted to control the flare ups of multiple sclerosis,” said CEO Cody Pepper. “They needed to manage stress. They needed to manage fitness, and they needed to manage diet.”
Amir and his family immigrated from Iran when he was young, and his family opened a couple of sandwich shops “so Amir was very familiar with the restaurant industry,” Pepper said.
When an opportunity arose for a restaurant spot at the OU Health Science Center, Amir and Cindy made the decision to open a restaurant and then got up and running in the span of a couple weeks.
“They named it Health Nut because they made a commitment to each other to become health nuts to beat this thing,” Pepper said. “It was an internal promise.”
The move to Headington Hall came “through a series of ... weirdly coordinated events that the universe opened up,” Pepper said.
Amir is an OU alumnus, so “the ability to come back as a professional to a place that was so critical in his life as a young adult ... was too sweet to say no to,” Pepper said.
The restaurant is in the process of rebranding as the Bee Healthy Cafe and is starting a national franchise.
“It’s kind of serendipitous that the first brand new ... location is in another OU property 14 years later,” Pepper said.
On Nov. 10, the Bee Healthy Cafe hosted a “soft open” for the residents of Headington Hall and a grand opening was held on Nov 15.
