May Update

Sourcing

Sourcing has really ramped up! We're tracking almost 200 local farms and suppliers that produce beef, pork, chicken, turkey, eggs, dairy, exotics, produce, and dry goods. For every category, we want to have a luxury offering, core offering, and backup option. For beef as an example, the luxury offering will be wagyu, core will be a grass-fed and finished option, and backup will be another grass-fed and finished farm in case the core supplier has a disruption. Farming is never guaranteed! We need redundancy and resiliency in the supply chain. Here's our grand farm spreadsheet where we're tracking everything:

In May we had calls or farm visits with True Bird, Counter Culture Farms, Barton Springs Mills, Farm to Table TX, The Common Market, Sour Duck, and Coyote Creek. June will see a ton of visits and we hope to start selecting a few suppliers. We're very excited to share more about this soon!

Architecture and Brand Design

Our floor plan is finalized! Huge thank you to the Michael Hsu architects (Chet Morgan and Anna Parkison) who have been in the weeds with us. They are so talented and thoughtful. Now we're working with them to select finishes, design furniture, and overall bring the floor plan to life. Next month we can share renderings!

We designed the floor plan to be a manifestation of how Joe and I like to create seasonal meals. Start with sensing, touching, and smelling the ripe in-season produce. Get inspired right when you walk in the door with a display of the peak season produce. Right now in Texas that is peaches and tomatoes. After selecting the produce you want to showcase, come to the butcher counter to have a conversation with our butchers about what protein you want to pair your produce with. Maybe a pork chop with grilled peaches, or red snapper with roasted tomato and peach. We want the experience of designing seasonal meals to be collaborative and educational; all our staff will be welcoming and trained to design seasonal meals with you! Once you have your produce and protein selected, round out the meal with any dry goods (rice, beans, etc) and sauces and spices.

We half-jokingly describe this floor plan as "Chipotle-esque". It should be an intuitive conveyor for selecting items to compose an overall meal. And it needs to be simple and fast. If you pick up ingredients for 2 or 3 meals, the process from parking to checkout should take less than 15 minutes. Much better than navigating a massive grocery warehouse!

Location

We just announced the news that Radius will take over the Salt & Time space on 1912 E 7th St! Salt & Time has been a pillar of the Austin farm-to-table community for over a decade, and we hope to uphold and extend that legacy. Read the full announcement here.

Growing the team

We posted job openings for a senior butcher, butchers, a grocery category manager, and cashier/stockers. If you or anyone you know might be interested in a role, reach out to jobs@eatradius.com.

Please forward this newsletter to friends who are passionate about local food ecosystems and live in the Austin area! You can also follow us on Instagram @eatRadius for more frequent updates.