Laughing Planet: Healthy, fast and casual
The restaurant chain with two branches in Reno offers fresh dishes from local produce in a fast and casual manner.
While Tim Helion is not the owner of the restaurant on paper, he definitely owns it in spirit. Responsible for the hiring process and the wall decor, he describes himself as a cultural creative on Linkedin and acts as a stuart for the community.
Tim has been in the food industry since 1985 when he opened Deux Gros Nez, the first coffee house in Reno. Besides coffee, his team specialized in offering healthy vegetarian food from clean ingredients. As chance would have it, Tim was kind of a mentor for Richard Satnick who had the idea for the Laughing Planet in that very coffee house.
“There are only a few genuine ideas out there”, says Tim, “everything else is kind of stolen.” When asked if he got mad at Richard for copying his idea of offering clean and healthy food, he shakes his head energetically: “The opposite! I was flattered.”
Origin of the Name
It’s quite a mystery how the Laughing Planet came to its name, but as a good friend of Richard, Tim begins to tell the founder’s story. One day, Richard was in Australia with a couple of friends, which were members of the environmental movement Earth First!, founded in the 80s. One of his friends was an Aborigine — native Australians, whose beliefs are closely tied to mother Earth and who were one of the last isolated people before the colonization by white men.
While the friends were sitting on a hill and getting stoned, Richard looked up at the starry night sky and then gazed down at a nearby town. The bright lights dazzled him immediately, and he wondered why all the people were so busy.
“Look what humans are doing to the earth”, he said to his Native Australian friend. The guy looked Richard in the eyes and replied “Don’t worry about a thing. The planet will just laugh and take care of it.” And just like that, the name for the Laughing Planet was born.
During the pandemic
Reno is by far not the only place where people can find a Laughing Planet as there are 14 restaurants across the US with the parent company in Oregon. As of today, Reno has two Laughing Planets: one in midtown which opened in April 2014, and the other one in front of the university which opened only two years.
Like many other restaurants, the Laughing Planets had to close for a month in March 2020 due to the global pandemic. Luckily, they were able to offer curbside service afterwards: customers could pick up to-go food at the front door and the number of delivery orders increased exponentially.
Unlike the branch in midtown, the one at UNR depends heavenly on students. When the university was shut down for 5 months, the Laughing Planet had to close as well: it was not profitable to keep the location open. Nevertheless, business is going well ever since.
Fresh Produce
Tim states he only buys produce within a radius you can bike. „At one point I cycled 147 miles, so we try to get products within that radius.” He quickly adds: “Of course, we’re not perfect. Obviously, avocados don’t grow here, and we buy them from Mexico.” Yet, they try to source with the lowest possible ecological footprint and buy their produce mainly from farms around Reno.
Tim says that the food needs to be appropriately grown, not necessarily organic on paper. For instance, the broccoli comes from a small farm which does not use any chemicals and offers good working conditions and healthcare to its employees. “These things are more important than having the title ‘organic farm’ like many conglomerates have.”
Another example are their beans. The Laughing Planet partnered with a farm which uses a special practice of farming doing less harm to the soil than regular bean farms. Indeed, the restaurant chain tries to stay regional and lowers shipping as much as it can.
The menu offers a wide variety of food, not only when it comes to vegetables but also meat. Customers can enjoy their bowls or burritos with beef from Northeastern Nevada and chicken and pork from California. Naturally, the Laughing Planet integrated plant-based meat into their menu and vegetarians/vegans can choose between Tofu and Tempeh. Additionally, every two weeks, all Laughing Planets across the country offer the same special dish to spice up the menu.
Jazz Nights
Every Wednesday, the Laughing Planet partners with the music department from UNR amd throws a Jazz Night. Both parties benefit from this special cooperation: the music students gain experience, practice in front of a real audience and learn how to handle stage fright while the restaurant’s customers can enjoy live music.
The restaurant chain is also a supporter of the annual Jazz festival hosted by the university. While it offers special dishes every two weeks, Tim reveals that the music students’ all time-favorite is the Crunchero, a homemade quesadilla.
Fair prices and Community support
The concept of the Laughing Planet is well received by its customers. “What we do is feed good quality dishes to our guest and support a healthy planet in a fast and casual way”, says Tim. The food is indeed properly sourced, very healthy and served in a quick and casual manner which makes it more affordable.
The reason behind not having waiters is to keep food prices fair. Since customers order and pick up their food at the counter, the restaurant saves on labor costs which reflects in the food deals.
Additionally, it is the perfect place to go and grab a meal for your children when you have no time to cook and still want to put something healthy on the table. At the moment, Tim is looking for new locations in the South of Reno and Truckee: “I think it would be well received and customers wouldn’t have to drive that much to get healthy food from the Laughing Plane.”
Finally, the Laughing Planet tries to give back to the local community and lives by the motto “Do well, so you can do good.” Indeed, the regional community benefits from the sales of the restaurant chain as it not only supports the music department at UNR, but also works with elementary and high schoolers.
A while ago, the Laughing Planet partnered with a local farm group and visited a nearby elementary school to educate children about growing food. Another time, they bought equipment for a school to help the science department. Yet, not only the regional community get the much needed help: After the outbreak of the Ukrainian war, the restaurant chain donated $27,000–10% of all revenues from one week.
“The goal is not just to make money and grow financially. We are here to contribute to the community and provide healthy food while supporting the environment .”, Tim concludes.
Laughing Planet:
941 N Virgina St., Reno, 89503
650 Tahoe St., Reno, 89509
