February Update

Design and Build 

After interviewing six architecture firms and five brand design agencies, we've decided to partner with Michael Hsu Office of Architecture on both architecture and brand design! The MHOA project team went above and beyond to show their excitement about the Radius concept, not just the Radius architecture. You can read more about how we interviewed firms and decided on MHOA.

Joe and I also went on a trip to LA, SF, and NYC to gather design inspiration. We visited 11 butcher shops, 9 grocery stores, 10 coffee shops, and 6 restaurants. We hope that Radius is a combination of what we loved - the utilitarian warmth of SF coffee shops, the fresh abundance of LA grocery stores, and the proudly displayed craft butchery in NYC. Our experiences of these stores will inspire Radius design decisions, but not dictate them. We shared the trip summary with the project team at Michael Hsu to inspire conversation and collaboration on the store design.

Location

I have a verbal agreement to buy an existing restaurant with some butchery infrastructure. This will save a lot of money and a lot of time compared to building out an empty space. Hopefully we can share more in the coming month or so!

Head Butcher and Team

Last month Joe Saenz joined the team as head butcher! He previously was the GM at a butcher shop in Brooklyn and has done butchery back home in Texas for the last few years. There's one more person that will likely join the team soon who will head up community management, both consumer-facing and farmer-facing.

Sourcing

No progress on sourcing since I've been focused on the location, team, and design. If/when our new team member joins, we'll start building these relationships in earnest well before the store opens.