Sioux Chef's Kickstarter breaks individual-backer record for restaurants

It’s been more than a successful Kickstarter campaign for Sean Sherman and Dana Thompson, who together run the Sioux Chef catering operation. Their effort to fund a start-up restaurant — the Sioux Chef: An Indigenous Kitchen — went far beyond their initial goal of $100,000, resulting in $148,728 raised. Although there were some gifts of more than $1,000, the flood of single-dollar donations made Thompson emotional.

That grass-roots effort brought more individual backers — 2,358 — to this restaurant fundraiser than national Kickstarter efforts have experienced before in this category, all enthused about the indigenous foods venture.

“It’s so humbling,” Thompson said. “I think the story really resonates with people of all demographics. It’s this really magical combination of food and artistry, and then the cultural preservation, reclaiming of food, health and nutrition aspects on top of that. I mean, it would be pretty weird to find somebody that thought that was a bad idea.”

http://www.startribune.com/sioux-chef-s-restaurant-kickstarter-breaks-individual-backer-record/393420811/