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| Ryan Evans inside Hatch Kitchen RVA |
Richmond is a growing place. Urban gardens spring up in
warehouse districts, next to parking lots, and within a tomato’s throw of busy
interstates. Breweries? Ten years ago Richmond had one. Now there’s 30. Coffee
shops and roasters. Specialty packaged foods from A to Z. And restaurants? A
world of foods are around every Richmond corner.
Ever wonder how these businesses get started? Blood, sweat,
tears, seat-of-the-pants learning, desperate appeals for money, wings and prayers?
Not anymore. Now fledgling foodie dreamers have a nest they can feather before
taking flight. Now they have Hatch Kitchen RVA.
“Hatch Kitchen RVA is a food and beverage business
incubator,” says Ryan Evans, Reynolds Culinary Arts graduate and Director of
Kitchen Operations at Hatch Kitchen RVA. “We do have a full commercial kitchen,
but the shared kitchen is only part of what we do. We offer classes through
Startup Virginia and The Apple Cart with instruction on just about every aspect
of starting and running a food business. We have 75 mentors - consultants in
marketing, branding, accounting, law, and governmental regulations - who are
available to answer members’ questions and sort out start up issues. One member
had confusing legal and accounting issues, and we were able to help him. Having
this access to knowledge and advice can save a start-up thousands of dollars,
and probably millions of headaches.”
“Our members dream of starting a food business,” Ryan
continues, “we dream of helping them do that. We don’t expect them to stay. We
give them a place to operate while they learn and grow their business, then we
will encourage them to go. Members come to us with varying skills and needs. Nightingale
Ice Cream is here. They are a strong, viable business selling their ice cream
sandwiches in stores in several states. But, then there are members who have
left their day jobs to pursue an idea and are starting from scratch.”
From his own experience, Ryan has a deep understanding of
this start up process. When he came to Reynolds he had been around the food
business most of his life. Reynolds gave him the opportunity to make a career
out of his passion rather than just work in a kitchen. “It was a great, pivotal
time in my life,” Ryan said. “I was going to school full-time and working
full-time as a sous chef. For my internship, the restaurant saw I didn’t need kitchen
experience so I spent my time working in the office. Much of what I learned
then I use every day. Many of my classmates didn’t like the desk-based classes
like accounting, but those have been the most valuable for me. I use those
skills to save money. There is more to the food business than food.”
Ryan credits Chef Jesse Miller with showing him just how
many career options there are in the food business. “Chef Miller told us we
didn’t have to be just a chef. He encouraged us to think bigger. He brought in
speakers and took us places to show us what was possible. At first I said,
that’s not me, I wanted to be the chef. But, I began to realize how valuable
that perspective really is.”
Ryan continued to work in restaurants and bakeries after
graduation, he became a cheese monger, he helped several small restaurants get
up and running, and he was an independent restaurant consultant. He was working
nights and weekends and stayed home during the day take care of his young
family – one son, and then a set of twins – when a friend told him about a
couple of guys who had an idea. They wanted to help food service businesses get
started. “They don’t have restaurant kitchen experience and they’re having
issues,” the friend said. That “idea” was Hatch Kitchen. Ryan started as a
consultant and quickly became Director of Kitchen Operations. He says, “I’m
excited to have gotten this long term career opportunity.”
“Chef Miller taught us to focus on the details. Not just the
details of the food. But, efficiency. Cost. Cleanliness. Everything matters. He
had a strict dress code. Students would ask, “Who cares what I wear, I’m just
cooking,” and Chef would explain how every detail mattered. You’ve got to look
good, too. In this position at Hatch I apply that discipline to our operations,
I can also share that kind of lesson with those who are just getting started.”
Like its members, Hatch Kitchen is just getting started, and
Ryan finds himself nurturing his own start-up process. “Expansion plans include
a multipurpose Café where members can eat and conduct business, but would
double as an event space where members can cater events, showcase their
products, or if they have a food truck, they can test out what it would be like
to have a brick and mortar location. We want to make this space as utilitarian
as possible. We are also adding private work areas, small rooms, where members
can customize their own dedicated space and have more control. This is
particularly important for packaged goods.”
Here Ryan laughs and gets a little breathless, “As Hatch
Kitchen grows I’ve had to learn to be a general contractor and a tradesman, an
electrician, a plumber, and everything else. I don’t just give members tours
and solve their problems, I also oversee the progress of construction. I’ve
learned so much over the past year and gained tremendous confidence. There is much
to do and the days are very busy with a multitude of tasks, just like in a
restaurant. It’s been a wild ride.”
Richmond is indeed a growing place. And its growth has
always started with a seed, an idea, a hope, or a dream. Now there’s help. Now
there’s a nest. Now there’s Hatch Kitchen RVA. And it’s all about hatching
dreams.
