Impact Kitchen scales transparent, performance-led nutrition across Toronto and New York
Created to address the need for truly healthy dining options in the Toronto marketplace, Impact Kitchen was founded in 2015 with a clear and uncompromising philosophy. What began as a bold idea between personal trainer and nutrition coach Josh Broun and entrepreneur Frank Toskan has grown into nine nutrition-focused, all-day restaurants and cafés across Toronto and New York City.
“My business partner, Frank Toskan, and I founded Impact Kitchen in 2015. Our story is quite unique: I was originally a personal trainer and nutrition coach, and Frank was one of my clients,” Josh begins. “After conversations where we talked about opportunities in food, beverage and hospitality, we developed a concept centered around a distinct food philosophy and a passion for building a community around our brand. The concept for Impact Kitchen emerged from those discussions.”
At the time, the idea was ambitious. Few believed a strictly nutrition-driven restaurant, free of gluten, refined sugars, and seed oils, could scale successfully. But both founders believed there was a better way to eat, even when industry experts suggested the model would be too complex to execute.
A couple of years after those initial conversations, Impact Kitchen opened its first location in Corktown, Toronto. “At that time, we had no restaurant experience, no website, and no Instagram presence,” Josh recalls. “However, we had a strong brand built on our food philosophy and commitment to hospitality, and a mindset that emphasized getting to know our customers one at a time. By the end of our first year, we found ourselves with lines out the door, enabling us to open additional locations.”
From the beginning, Impact Kitchen has stayed true to its belief that food is perfect just as it is: unmodified, unrefined and unprocessed. That philosophy continues to shape every aspect of the business today, but as the brand has evolved, its focus has sharpened around performance nutrition and intentional menu innovation.
As an all-day restaurant and café, Impact Kitchen serves breakfast, brunch, lunch and dinner, offering smoothies, power bowls, cold-pressed juices, baked goods, bone broths and a large grab-and-go selection. Every item on the menu is made in-house and is entirely gluten-free, refined sugar-free and seed oil-free; a commitment that requires disciplined sourcing and close relationships with farmers and suppliers.
To ensure both quality and nutritional integrity, the company works alongside chefs, nutritionists and wellness experts to craft food with a clear purpose. Its philosophy encourages guests to eat real food, embrace a plant-powered approach, prioritize high-quality protein, choose healthy fats, drink to their health and be sweet to themselves; principles that are woven seamlessly into the menu rather than treated as marketing language.
Today, as consumers become increasingly focused on longevity, energy, and performance, what once felt niche has become a growing expectation. Impact Kitchen has positioned itself at the forefront of that shift by continually innovating and applying emerging nutrition trends to its offerings before they become mainstream.
Organic growth
Before establishing Impact Kitchen, Josh had very different career aspirations. “I can definitely say I never envisioned myself in the restaurant industry,” he shares. “In my mid-20s, I felt a little lost regarding my career path and decided to attend firefighting school, with the goal of becoming a firefighter. However, there is a lengthy waiting period to get hired in Toronto, so during that time, I turned to personal training.”
It was through personal training that he met Frank, whose entrepreneurial track record brought a different dimension to the partnership. As the Co-Founder of MAC Cosmetics, Frank built a Toronto-born company into a global powerhouse with a significant presence in New York City and beyond.
“His entrepreneurial journey is incredible,” Josh says. “We aspire to follow a similar path of growth with Impact Kitchen, which originated in Toronto, where we currently have seven locations. Additionally, we have recently opened two restaurants in New York City over the last six months, which has been an exciting new endeavor for us.”
The complementary nature of their backgrounds, one rooted in performance and nutrition, the other in brand-building and global expansion, has provided the foundation for sustainable growth.
Impact Kitchen now operates with a vertically integrated model, producing its menu items daily in commissary kitchens in both Toronto and New York to ensure consistency, freshness and quality control across locations. This operational discipline allows the company to scale without compromising the integrity of its ingredients or its philosophy.
The brand describes itself in three words: transparent, performance-driven and community-focused. That community-first mindset remains central to its expansion strategy.
Pivotal partnership
Replicating the concepts that drove success in Toronto has been a key part of entering the American market. Rather than investing heavily in traditional PR, Impact Kitchen embraces a grassroots approach, partnering with fitness studios, wellness leaders and community ambassadors, hosting events, and showing up consistently in neighborhoods. The focus remains on building relationships, one guest at a time, just as it did in its earliest days.
The company has outlined a roadmap for growth through 2030, with plans to continue deepening its footprint in New York City while strengthening its leadership position in Toronto. While it benefits from a decade of experience in its home market, the goal is to accelerate that trajectory in the United States by applying the lessons already learned.
Looking back on the challenges of the past decade, including periods that tested the resilience of the hospitality industry, Josh credits the strength of the partnership and a long-term mindset. “I am fortunate that my amazing business partner provided a safety net throughout difficult times,” he reflects. “We chose to invest in the business so that we would come out stronger.”
Today, Impact Kitchen is not simply responding to consumer demand for healthier options; it is actively helping redefine what nutrition-focused dining can look like at scale. By combining rigorous ingredient standards, performance-driven menu innovation and an unwavering commitment to community, the brand continues to impact how people eat, feel and live on both sides of the border.