Martha Hoover

Patachou, Inc.

FOUNDER & OWNER, PATACHOU, INC.

As a former sex crimes prosecutor, Patachou Inc. owner Martha Hoover had excellent, if unorthodox, training for the restaurant business. Without even one day spent working in the restaurant industry, she created a successful collection of twelve establishments—Cafés Patachou, Petite Chou Bistro, Napolese Pizzeria, Public Greens, Bar One Fourteen — and newly-opened Crispy Bird, serving heritage birds that don’t look, or taste, like everyone else’s fried chicken. In 1989, Hoover used premium ingredients, prepared from scratch, and partnered with local vendors and farmers — unheard of at that time. Today, Patachou supports more Indiana family farms than all the other restaurants in Indianapolis combined.

Hoover, a four-time James Beard Award semifinalist, was recently named one of the “Most Innovative Women in Food & Drink” by Food & Wine Magazine, “Empire Builder of the Year” by Eater and profiled in Vogue. In the coming year, she plans to open two new Public Greens locations and The Box Office, a women’s co-working space.

In 2013, to better connect the company and staff to the community, Hoover created The Patachou Foundation to feed healthy meals to food insecure children in Indianapolis. The Foundation started small, adhered to smart growth strategies, and made an immediate impact; in keeping with Patachou’s 2020 vision, it is a also a radically different and radically better organization. To date, over 60,000 healthy, nutritious meals have been served by The Patachou Foundation to children in the Indianapois community who live with pervasive food insecurity.