The Film

Synopsis

REVELATIONS CAFÉ is a feature length documentary film that tells the story of Mia and Robby Graham, two improbable founders of a unique plant-based, faith-based café in Lutz, Florida. With little more than divine inspirations, Mia and Robby built their dream café from the ground up in a former mattress store with no existing kitchen. They had a vision for a café based on their Christian faith, but they had no experience in the restaurant business and their menu did not include meat or alcohol. Considering these challenges, and the fact that half of all new restaurants fail, they faced long odds.

When Producer-Director John Corry (FORKS OVER KNIVES, THE BOWDEN DYNASTY), stumbled on a Facebook post announcing the café’s opening in February 2019 he reached out to Robby, his friend back in high school, and the two reacquainted. After a surprisingly successful first year in operation, the Covid pandemic struck in March 2020 and Revelations Café was shut down. It was during those quiet weeks that Mia and Robby decided to rebrand their café before it reopened. First, they made the menu even healthier with new Chef Lori Martin’s expertise and a prepared frozen food line. Then they dedicated themselves to exploring as many ways as possible to promote the plant-based lifestyle outside the café to the local community.

Mia and Robby contacted Nelson and Kim Campbell representing the nonprofit PlantPure Communities to set up a local support and advocacy group called a “pod” to educate others about the benefits of a whole foods, plant-based diet. They also reached out to Mia’s ex-husband, Martin Revello, to bring a 10-day plant-based immersion program to his Independent Physicians Association, veriMED. The immersion program enables primary care doctors to literally prescribe healthy food instead of medicine to show patients with common chronic diseases that there is an alternative to pills and procedures. Patients can literally eat their way to renewed health. Finally, they reached out to John Corry to document their transition as they navigated through the pandemic and relaunched their café with their new mission.

What developed was a cautionary tale told by the people in the Café and the local area that touches on issues most American’s can relate to such as aging wisely, nursing home care, our bloated Medicare system, and personal responsibility for our immune system – the need for people to take care of their own bodies – described in the bible as “the temple of the Holy Spirit.”

As we learn, Mia and Robby didn’t always take care of themselves. They met seven years ago in an AA meeting while Robby was in the Salvation Army recovering from pain pill addiction and Mia was celebrating her first year of sobriety. After three years of marriage, Mia began to form her vision for the Café, supported by the inspiration she received from her daily devotions.

Robby supported her strategy to make the café vegetarian, but he wasn’t onboard with that diet in his personal life. In the fall of 2018, during the café’s construction, Robby suffered a heart attack in the middle of a workout. A former bodybuilder who prided himself on looking good on the outside, Robby was surprisingly unhealthy on the inside. At the age of 57, he turned to the plant-based diet to speed his recovery. More importantly, he jumped on board with Mia’s vision of a café where people got healthier, not sicker, from the food on the menu.

Best-selling authors and internationally recognized lecturers Dr. T. Colin Campbell and Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn also appear in the film.

(Documentary, Running time 95 mins, 2021)

Our Story

Our story began on July 26 2013, in what some would consider an encounter in a hopeless place… an AA meeting in Lutz, FL. Imagine, a recovering alcoholic with one and a half years of sobriety and an IV drug user just months clean & sober, having a divine encounter that changed the course of their lives forever. Through a multitude of miracles, signs and wonders, and against all odds, we were married in just 11 months on the Day of Pentecost (June 8, 2014). We said our wedding vows while standing under an authentic Jewish prayer shawl the Best Man and Maiden of Honor brought back from a recent trip to the Promised Land (Jerusalem). Most would think this would be the end of the story and we lived happily ever-after. But… this was just the beginning of God blessing the broken road. A broken road leading us first to Himself and then to each other. Through our obedience to stay true to the calling on our lives, we received degrees in Christian counseling and became certified Christian life coaches. Then, through a powerful revelation from endless devotion time spent in the “secret place,” Revelations Café was birthed. We never dreamed the platform we’d be given would have such far reaching effect in the Faith-Based & Plant-Based communities alike. Our love for Jesus and the desire to honor the temple of the Holy Spirit moves us forward. Through living a plant-based lifestyle, complete with regular exercise, we’ve learned the importance of “body, mind & Spirit.” Come… taste and see that it is good!

Cast & Crew

Revelations Café Proprietors/Christian Life Coaches

Robby Graham & Mia Revello-Graham

Robby & Mia oversee Revelations Café operations and marketing. However, it goes far beyond these two facets of the business. Each have obtained degrees in Christian Counseling from Life Christian University and became certified Life Coaches under Cynda Harris (Grow-Life Coaching Academy). Robby & Mia’s passion is to serve the Lord by serving others. Helping others discover the God-sized dream within. Teaching others how to break free from the hurts & hang-ups holding them back. Using God’s word as a lamp unto their feet and a light unto their path as they learn to trust God and walk by faith, not by sight. To answer the aged-old question, “why am I here”? Becoming one with Christ in body, mind & spirit.

veriMED IPA – President

Martin Revello, MPH

Martin operates a 100+ primary care provider IPA network in Tampa Bay that participates with Medicare Advantage Health Plans covering close to 15k Medicare lives under value based contractual arrangements. He graduated from University of South Florida (USF) with a BS in Long Term Care Administration and also received his Master of Public Health (MPH) from USF. Martin became plant-based about four years ago in 2017 after watching a few documentaries including PlantPure Nation, Forks Over Knives, and What the Health. These films along with influence from his girlfriend, Victoria Hoch, convinced Martin to make this lifestyle change and he has not looked back ever since taking the plunge!

Executive Chef – Revelations Café

Lori Martin

Lori Martin, executive chef at Revelations Café, in Lutz, Florida, has over a decade of experience in whole food plant-based cooking. Her culinary career provided an opportunity for a position as a corporate chef for a 120-bed health care company in Florida that specialized in rehabilitating patients as well as a 125-bed assisted living facility. For eight years, Lori developed menus with plant-based options and educated the patient’s and residents on lifestyle changes. Lori transitioned to this lifestyle when she began struggling with high cholesterol in her late 40s. Specializing in plant-based, oil free meal plans at the café, she is committed to educating people by sharing her story and her passion to transform lives through the healing power of food.

Producer & Director

John Corry

Producer John Corry oversees high profile documentary films, TV Series and Online Educational/New Media projects. His most recent producing projects include the feature documentary film The Mindfulness Movement (2020), with Deepak Chopra and Jewel, and the feature doc Code Blue (2019). John’s groundbreaking documentary Forks Over Knives has become one of the most influential health documentaries since its release in theaters and on Netflix in 2011. His other productions on health and wellness include PlantPure Nation and The Engine 2 Kitchen Rescue, both seen on Netflix.