Almost all shopping malls are full of hustling shoppers, countless stores and a food court where hungry shoppers go to rest their feet and indulge in some tasty cuisine. The food court inside the Lincoln Square Mall in Urbana strays from typical chain restaurants.

At the heart of the mall lies Piato Café and Piato Too, two restaurants that offer a variety of fresh, homemade, organic and vegetarian-friendly food.

“It’s just not food-court food. This is homemade stuff  — this is our blood, sweat and tears,” said Kelly Jo Lamb, owner of Piato Café and Piato Too. “We work hard to give you the best products we can — that’s what cooking is about and so many places have lost that feeling.”

Piato Café opened in December 2006 after Lamb was offered to take over the rental space, which previously held Cali’s Cocina, where she worked as a cook.

“After a year, they decided they didn’t want it anymore and asked if I would take it over,” Lamb said. “So I did, and Piato was born.”

In need of more space, the business expanded to the spot next to Piato Café 2½ years ago, now called Piato Too. Although essentially one business, Piato Café and Piato Too offer very different menus.

“Piato’s side has more burgers, fries, pizzas — your sort of home-cooking stuff,” said Meagan Quigley, Piato’s office manager. “Piato Too offers the salad bar, in addition to your quiches for breakfast and more of a Mexican-style flair.”

Along with the restaurants, the business includes two other branches: Piato Catering and Organic Food Nanny. They bought the Organic Food Nanny concept in September 2011 and officially started delivering in October 2011.

Piato’s Organic Food Nanny is an organic-food delivery service that serves almost 50 families in the Champaign-Urbana area. Each share of food includes two full meals, and their largest family receives five shares a week. Memberships, which can be purchased on a week-to-week basis, are available at piatocafe.com.

“We are the only meal-delivery service in town that is not a large corporate franchise, and we are the only meal-delivery service that is organically exclusive,” Quigley said.

Quigley said the idea of Organic Food Nanny came about when Lamb was approached by some friends who were doing the service, but on a much smaller scale. They moved to Wisconsin, so Lamb bought the concept and their client list. The company has since gained about 20 new members. It also recently added meat to the menu.

“We’ve changed it a lot since they had it,” Lamb said. “We offer meals that have meat, and we do a lot more desserts. But we still have a soup, a salad, (and) everything is (still) homemade, local and organic.”

As for how the service got its name, Lamb said it’s called Organic Food Nanny because “it’s kind of like your nanny to the rescue.”

“A lot of our people don’t have time to either make a good meal for their family or don’t have time to go grab something that’s nutritional, (so we provide) a meal that’s ready for them and that lasts a few days,” Lamb said. “We are bringing you meals that are already prepared. All you have to do is heat it up and it’s good to go.”

The process of sending out the food to their customers begins on Thursdays when Piato fills out order sheets from local farmers to decide what their meals will include for the week.

On Saturdays, they go out to local farmers markets and get all their necessary food ingredients. They go to the Common Ground Food Co-op in Urbana on Mondays to get their staple items like flour and sugar, and then cooking commences.

Tuesday is delivery day, so all Piato employees are busy portioning and packaging the food for delivery.

Each week, Piato sends out a letter to its customers detailing all the items they received for that week, what the ingredients are and where exactly they came from.

Organic Food Nanny service customer Vicki Mahaffey expressed how fortunate she feels to have access to a service like Food Nanny, according to a statement submitted to Piato.

“The food is delicious, healthy and imaginatively prepared,” Mahaffey said in the statement. “Their meals add variety and ease to the work week, and it’s fun to look forward to the new ideas they will ‘cook up’ next.”

As for what comes next, Quigley said the Organic Food Nanny service hopes to double their clientele and maybe start delivering to day cares.

“We want to get more members so that more people know that we’re out there and that more people are eating healthier and organic,” Quigley said. “Let’s get kids to eat real food, to understand that real food comes out of the ground (and) that it’s supposed to be dirty when you pick it up from the farm stand instead of a box.”

Each month, Piato holds $5 charity buffets for a different cause.

In honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Piato will have a charity buffet for the cancer patients of Mills Breast Cancer Institute in Urbana on Oct. 25 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Piato. Mills Breast Cancer Insitute is teaming up with ParkLife Video and Primelight Studios to produce video and pictures of the patients for family members.

“It’s going to cost $200 a patient to (capture the video and pictures), so hopefully we’ll get a ton of people (to participate) so there’s more (patients) we can cover,” Lamb said.

Lamb said her favorite aspects of owning Piato is the opportunity to contribute to charities.

“I love that I can support my community so much,” Lamb said. “I wanted to be a social worker, and this is my way that I can give back.”

Morgan can be reached at [email protected].