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Minnie Luong has her own commercial kitchen, two part time staffers, and dozens of orders to fill each week for her popular kimchi brand, Chi Kitchen. But she still makes time to prop up a folding table at her local grocery store and hand out free samples. Sampling, as it is known, is how food entrepreneurs like Luong connect with customers and entice new ones. And that is exactly what she plans to do at a special Hope & Main sampling event at University Heights Whole Food Market on January 10 from 4-7pm.
While dishing out free bites may appear a humble act for brands eager to sell their product, sampling evokes the deeply personal relationships that are actually the sign of a successful food business. “It really is about the relationships with the people,” said Luong, who looks forward to returning to the first Whole Foods store she signed with. By chance, it is also her regular grocery store. When she shops, she makes sure to visit her aisle and straighten her kimchi jars.
Luong launched Chi Kitchen at Hope & Main, relying on the staff’s technical expertise to sail through licensing, testing, scaling, and making good use of their commercial kitchens to produce her tangy and crunchy product. Just as important were the intangible benefits of her Hope & Main membership: landing a meeting with a premier caterer after running into him in the hallway; scooping up tips from fellow entrepreneurs; and proudly receiving a certificate of graduation from the team at Hope & Main that believed in her from day one.
“In thinking about how to market a new product, you need to recognize that food is a ‘two sell buy,’ said Lisa Raiola, Hope & Main’s Founder and President. “By that I mean that in order to get into eater’s hand, you need to get onto the retailer’s shelf. That can be an enormous challenge for a novice producer, and it’s one of the areas where Hope & Main offers the most assistance. Our team has developed key relationships with major grocers and other buyers committed to supporting local makers. In that we we are so much more than a shared kitchen space. We are business coaches, trusted advisors, and perhaps most importantly, connectors.”
Hope & Main hosted Whole Foods Supplier Summit in September of 2015, shortly after opening its doors. The connection with Whole Foods and their team of Local Foragers has proved particularly successful. The first time Louby Sukkar and Matt McClelland from The Backyard Food Company sampled their product to the public, at Whole Foods University Heights, they sold out. Within six months, they were in 33 Whole Foods stores. All the time Sukkar had put into personally meeting with his rep was paying off.
“It was astronomical,” Sukkar said. “Whole Foods gave us a platform to reach other consumers.” Now, The Backyard Food Company is selling in nearly 300 grocery stores across New England and New Jersey. They credit Whole Foods with much of their success and are joining the tasting Jan. 10.
Fostering relationships both with eaters through the onsite markets and retailers through a buyer/distributor network is a unique component of Hope & Main’s signature incubation program. These connections help pave the way for more Hope & Main members to sign with Whole Foods, like up-and-comer Mesa Fresca, which makes authentic chimichurri. Ballet dancer Alan Alberto and his sister Nathalie Alberto co-founded Mesa Fresca. The close community of entrepreneurs and industry pros at Hope & Main helped the nascent company grow quickly.
Mesa Fresca built a loyal customer following through Hope & Main’s Schoolyard Market where, for a whole summer Alan Alberto sampled his product while perfecting their recipe. Alan relishes sampling days because “nobody knows your brand and your product better than you do.” For the duo, validation is when a taster buys a jar. “Tastings are an opportunity to connect one-on-one with guests and receive candid feedback,” Alan Alberto said. “You never know who the tasting will reach and where the product will go, which was our case with Whole Foods.”
Mesa Fresca, Backyard Food Company, Chi Kitchen, Anchor Toffee, Fox Point Pickling Company, and CocoFuel are sampling at University Heights Whole Foods Market on Jan. 10 from 4-7 p.m.
Event Details:
An Evening with Hope & Main
Whole Foods University Heights Market
Tuesday, Jan. 10 4-7 p.m.
601 North Main Street
Providence, RI
ABOUT HOPE & MAIN
HOPE & MAIN is Rhode Island’s first culinary business incubator. We help local entrepreneurs jump-start early-stage food companies and food related businesses by providing low cost, low risk access to shared-use commercial kitchens and other industry-specific technical resources. Our goal is to help grow the local food economy by creating a community of support for food entrepreneurs and cultivating an environment where emerging culinary startups can test, create, scale and thrive. Hope & Main is a nonprofit organization.
