Zingerman’s Seeds Entrepreneurship

When Michael Graham applied to a deli position at Zingerman’s in 1998, he wanted to see if the famous Midwestern deli’s spotless image held up even for those working on the sandwich lines and behind the cheese counter.

But he seemed to get more than he bargained for. In addition to finding out that life at Zingerman’s was pretty darn good, Graham began soaking up practical aspects of running a business during his year and a half at the deli.

Graham didn’t realize it then, but in a couple years he would often find himself asking, “What would Zingerman’s do?”

And he’s not the only one. The owner of C’est Cheese in Santa Barbara, Calif. is one of many former Zingerman’s employees who have turned their culinary passions into entrepreneurial realities.

Kneading a community

John Sweet, the owner of Niedlov’s Breadworks in Chattanooga, Tenn., has often wondered how many Zingerman’s employees have gone on to start their own business.

“They’re so intentional about their management training and the thoughtfulness with which they systematize every process, from the actual production of their products to the management training,” Sweet explains. “It seems like.. …being a part of that organization would really give interested people a leg up in starting their own endeavors, should they be interested in that.”

Sweet’s love for artisan bread was kindled in his first job at Zingerman’s Bakehouse in the summer of 1998. He spent eight hours a day hand-shaping loaves of bread, never realizing his entrepreneurial muscles were being similarly shaped. Four years later, he and his wife, Angela, opened Niedlov’s.
A couple years into their business, the couple decided to move their business into an old brick building the run down yet historic Main Street  in Chattanooga’s downtown. Sweet hoped the breadworks could draw both patrons and more public-oriented businesses to a block commonly known for drugs and prostitution.
    
“We thought, ‘That’s a great place for us to go in because of the nature of our business. If we open up a café and sell artisan breads and great cinnamon rolls and coffee, it’s going to be hard to keep people away,'” Sweet says.

And like the Pied Piper, Niedlov’s attracted customers, as well as local business-types. They  used the WiFi-enabled café for meetings before opening their own shops up and down the street. Now a yoga studio, breakfast and lunch restaurant, and a couple non-profits are among the dozen businesses that have sprouted up along the street.

Sweet says his time at Zingerman’s fueled a passion for community development. Niedlov’s continues to support community development by partnering with local foundations and non-profits that are actively working to revive the area.

Sweet will also talk your ear off about composting and recycling – practices Niedlov’s uses to send as little waste as possible to the landfill. Niedlov’s recycles the usual business detritus but also turns leftovers from the lunchtime crowd into compost, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compost] heaped in the back of the business. Add another 400 to 500 pounds of scraps that Sweet picks up from a local preparatory school, and he’s has got a pretty hefty compost pile on his hands. Even local livestock get a taste of Sweet’s artisanal baking – old bread is donated to chicken, lamb and pig farmers.

Bringing artisan food to the people
    
After a series of unfulfilling jobs in corporate workplaces, Michael Graham might as well have had a Zingerman’s handbook written on his forearm like a high school cheat sheet when he and his wife, Kathryn, opened up their specialty cheese shop, C’est Cheese, in 2003.

With little entrepreneurial experience, Graham decided that his new business should completely emulated Zingerman’s. Varieties of mouth-watering cheese were imported from Europe, and C’est Cheese ditched competitive prices for quality products and great service. And blessed by the culinary gods, the shop opened around the same time artisan food was beginning to creep into Santa Barbara  restaurants and the minds of area residents. Restaurants improved the quality of their wares, and more and more began sourcing their ingredients from the nearby farmers market, Graham says.

“A lot of the better restaurants come into our place and select cheeses for the cheese plates, which is wonderful because it shows they’re supporting us,” Graham says. “And we’re giving them better quality cheeses.”

Now, many residents stop by the farmers market, the bakery next door and C’est Cheese as part of their Saturday-morning routine, Graham says.

And with the slow food movement peaking his interest, Graham hopes to incorporate more American-made artisan cheeses into C’est Cheese’s selection, which he finds are of the same quality as those from Europe.

“Business-wise, I see that’s the way consumer preference is going. So I think that that will be successful,” says Graham. “I really don’t like the agribusiness model. I don’t think it’s good for the environment or people’s health or socioeconomic welfare. So the more you can support small, individual farmers, I think the benefits just go throughout the entire society. Your food’s healthier; you’re more connected to your community if you know who’s making your food.”

Farm to table

Closer to home, two former Zingerman’s employees are planting the seeds for that local food relationship at their two and a half year old venture, Bare Knuckle Farm.
 
You should see where this one is going… With a love for food that grew while working at Zingerman’s, Jess Piskor and Abra Berens dove into their dream of creating a sustainable farm to table operation in Northport, Michigan.
 
While Piskor decided to pursue growing food for a living after working at Zingerman’s Deli and Cornman Farms, Berens’s love of cooking delicious dishes developed while working in the deli kitchen under local food advocate and head chef Rodger Bowser.

“You can grow an artisan product the way you want to and get paid for it,” Berens says, regarding the local food movement. “I want to support small scale agriculture because I believe in it. At the same time, I’m not sure I’m keen to be a farmer everyday for the rest of my life. I’m already keen on cooking, so it was sort of a way that I could help promote something that I was passionate about.”

Berens and Piskor currently farm about two acres of Bare Knuckle Farm by hand. Last season, they produced a couple truck beds full of fruits and vegetables a week for the large following of Northport area residents who support small-scale agriculture.

Piskor and Berens have also collaborated with other farmers in the community to share ideas on growing crops and maximizing their market share, Piskor says.

This season, Berens and Piskor are sharing a group of Yorkshire hogs with a local organic orchard owner who wants to use them to eat up the fruit that falls in his orchard – a practice that will prevent the fruit’s pathogens from attacking the trees.

“You can run turkeys and pigs all through the orchard and they will eat up all the fruit and kind of chuck up the land and fertilize it,” Berens explains. “He [the orchard owner] wanted to try this out in his orchard but he has no interest in spending time with the pigs…so he’s offering the capital and buying the pigs and fencing and feeders, and we’re taking care of them. Then we’re splitting the animals when it comes to harvest time.”

Berens estimates that the farm is about three to five years away from opening up the future Bare Knuckle Eatery – a restaurant that would mostly use bounty from the farm, and in turn, make the link between how food’s grown and how it’s consumed as close as possible.

“It will be a community of businesses under the same name that serve different purposes and that’s straight out of the Zingerman’s handbook,” Berens says. “That’s the way they do things and we have thought about it a lot and we think it’s a very deliberate and strong system.”

In the meantime, Berens and Piskor’s immersion into Northport is giving them a chance to understand the tastes of the local community and use that to inform the eatery’s approach to food.

“We’re trying to get to know the food that we grow and also the food culture in the area so that it’s approachable to people in this area and something they’re interested in eating,” Berens says. “If we’re not serving this community, then we’re not in the right place.”

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Julianna Materra…