ALBANY PARK — The owners of Albany Park’s new vegan restaurant say they’re obsessed with kale.

Kale My Name, a 100 percent vegan restaurant, is opening Friday at 3300 W. Montrose Ave. — for pick up and delivery, of course.

“Kale is a powerful plant, it’s a superfood. As we were designing the menu we kept on replacing ingredients like lettuce and spinach with kale because we were obsessed,” said Nemanja Golubovic, the restaurant’s general manager.

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Around the time he was trying to come up with a name for the business Golubovic had “Say My Name” by Destiny’s Child stuck in his head.

“‘Say my name, Say my name.’ I love that song. While I was talking with my kitchen manager Christina we were like why not name the restaurant Kale My Name,” Golubovic said. “I loved the idea but was worried someone else had already done it. I went online to see if anyone else had the same idea and no one else was using it, which surprised me but also was great for us.”

Kale My Name will be open Monday through Sunday from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.

“It’s hard to choose one menu item to single out. We have American classics like burgers. We created our own in-house veggie burger but also carry beyond meat burger patties. We also also have tacos, empanadas, and a traditional Balkan bread spread like Ajvar. We like to say our vegan menu is globally inspired.”

Golubovic and his partners have been working to open the restaurant for the past six months, long before the coronavirus pandemic hit Chicago.

“We had no clue about the virus back when we first started working on this. Once the news was covering it at one point we considered calling off opening and waiting for a better time after the pandemic,” he said. “But we realized we have gone so far and already hired people and we didn’t want to let them go.”

Left to right: Kale My Name’s Assistant Kitchen Manager Niko Rakic, Kitchen Manager Christina Youkhana, General Manager Nemanja Golubovic and CFO Julian Lopez. Provided

Until the state dine-in ban is lifted, Kale My Name will have no contact pick up service in addition to delivery.

“We’re only going to have carry out and deliveries for the foreseeable future. A lot of things we wanted to do, like have a full bar service with cocktails, are on hold until this is all over,” Golubovic said.

For more information visit the restaurant’s website.

Kale My Name’s menu is below.

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