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DETROIT -- A change in focus will hopefully evolve business for Detroit Evolution Laboratory as owners Gregg Newsom and Angela Kasmala in April stopped offering one of their most popular services -- vegan

and raw food dishes -- so they can focus on managing growth and expanding the company. ... Detroit Evolution Laboratory on Gratiot across from Eastern Market is a clearinghouse of sorts for various types of health and wellness services. "The Lab," as they lovingly refer to it, is the duo's first business venture. So far, it has been a resounding success.

The vision that Newsom alludes to is a three-tiered project that would include a full-service vegan restaurant on the ground floor, a second-floor yoga studio with additional space to holding workshops, and living quarters for the couple, along with a "sustainable lifestyle showcase" on the third floor. ... Competition is scarce in the downtown area. Other than the Innate Healing Arts Center on Woodward, which offers vegan food, a few natural food stores like Good Wells that offer retail organic produce and pantry items, and places like Avalon Bread that serve organic food, but use dairy products, The Lab has virtually no rivals in the vegetarian food arena and less in the vegan category.

The couple opted to locate at Gratiot and Russell in Detroit in 2007 because it is blocks from Eastern Market and there is plenty of land for urban farming. They had previously tested their healthy lifestyle concept in Detroit's Midtown area.

"We want to show people that being healthy can be fun and hip," Kasmala says.

-- read full article: http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080513/BIZ/805130350/1010/BI Z01