A. Well again, customer service is No. 1, making everybody happy. Someone would come in and say, “I don’t know what quinoa is,” so I comped it. If someone didn’t like their meal, I also comped it.

Q. Anything else?

A. Well, staying open 24/7, but that was an accident. When we first opened, we planned to go from 11 to 11. On opening day, when it was about 10 p.m. I saw that it had gotten kind of busy. It kind of surprised me because it had been slow most of the day. Around 10:30 p.m. my son said we needed to start to close, and when I reached in my pocket for my keys, I couldn’t find them to lock the door. So my son said, “O.K., let’s stay open.” We got swamped from midnight to 4 a.m. It turns out that the late-night market in Atlanta was a beautiful thing. At the time, there wasn’t much else open late at night besides the Waffle House.

Q. Is your son still involved in running the business?

A. My son started working for me when he was 19. He worked in the kitchen and learned all the skills. He worked alongside Donna every day and gathered a tremendous amount of information. He became the driver, and I kind of stepped aside. Then five years ago he died of leukemia — so that means I’m back playing again, so to speak.

Q. When did you know that the restaurant had caught on?

A. When I began to see many customers eating with us at least three to four times a week. Once I began to see regulars, I said, "Whoa, there is a market for this.”

Q. Now that healthy eating in Atlanta is no longer an outlier, do you find yourself in competition with other, similar places?

A. Yes, but I think this is good for me and for the city. I actually help my competition.

Q. How?

A. If someone wants to open a juice bar, I let them work in my place for three to four days. I tell people where to buy coconut oil; I push the use of it.

Q. What would you have done if the restaurant hadn’t become a hit?

A. I was just determined. I guess I was a classic entrepreneur. I could not help myself. I was driven and I still am. I love it. Once I realized how important feeding America correctly was, that was my driving force. Money was not an issue for me. We were losing money in the beginning, but I don’t spend a lot. I work every day. Personally, I live very conservatively. I was always convinced this would work out.

Q. Do you ever eat at KFC, Pizza Hut or Bojangles’?

A. I will occasionally stop at a Bojangles’ if I see one, but there’s not a lot of ‘em in Atlanta. The only thing I get is the biscuit because I want to see how they’re screwing it up, because they are.