Hello! My name is Spencer Shea and I am the owner of Homegrown Gastropub this is my story. I had a dream of one day opening up my own organic restaurant in the early 2000s. After working at SUP in the same location 10 years ago, I moved on to focus on school and becoming a pediatrician, after attending school I realized I was not into pharmaceutical medicine and started to really believe in the power of natural medicine and preventative health. I then moved on to helping my family run Shea's Tavern right next door, where I booked bands, did sound, and tended the bar until the wee hours of the morning.  After about 2 years of that, I started getting my plans together to open up my own organic restaurant! When I was 25 years old I had a daughter who ended up getting diagnosed with an autoimmune disorder. After going from doctor to doctor there was still no answer.

 

My daughter had really bad eczema where she'd stay up all night scratching and bleeding, it was so sad and there was no answer. She also had Alopecia and was bald. I just couldn't stand to see her like that. Finally, I came upon this book called GAPS which was based around the G.A.P.S. diet which was written to show the correlation between the immune system and the brain,  90% of our immune system lives in our small intestine. With today's food system that is loaded with pesticides, GMO's, antibiotics, hormones, nitrates, and overall a bunch of bad stuff for our immune systems. Basically, your small intestine is a battle of balance between good and bad gut flora. Probiotic foods help keep your "enterocytes" functioning properly and keep a good transmission of broken-down nutrients into the bloodstream. If these "enterocytes" are unhealthy it's called "Leaky Gut Syndrome", which is an open flood of undigested proteins, environmental toxins, and everything else along for the ride. This causes your body to attack itself and makes the body become inflamed and your immune system to lose control. 

 

So with this knowledge, I started only giving my daughter organic food, probiotic-rich fermented foods, kefir and made her bone broth. After sticking to this regimen her eczema and alopecia disappeared. I'm a strong believer in eating food that hasn't been tampered with. That is why I've opened up an organic restaurant offering food grown in the region, to also support our community.  I'm 3rd generation Reno resident and I'm not planning on moving!