After a setback-filled August, September was more kind to Radius. Unfortunately we'll miss our goal of opening before Thanksgiving, so we'll do turkey and pie pre-order pick-ups in the Radius parking lot. Expect an email soon about how to order a wonderful local, pasture-raised turkey from Richardson Farms and pies from Texas French Bread and Pie Jacked. We hope to open by Christmas, but if that’s not possible we'll do a similar pre-order and pick-up setup. 

Stay tuned for more timeline updates each month, and read on to learn more about September construction, sourcing, and team updates.

Construction

We completed the demolition and remediation phase! The roof was replaced, interior studs sistered, mountains of drywall removed, external siding waterproofed, and we got confirmation from the city about what we need to do about the grease trap (a costly replacement, of course!). The Radius space is now a blank canvas and we are very, very…very excited to watch the details designed on paper become artisanry in physical space. Demolition isn’t a beautiful process, but building it back will be. 

One of the foundational components of Radius’s in-store design will be millwork. We partnered with Phil Jackson Studio to create custom produce displays, dry goods shelving, butcher case housing, butcher blocks, a frieze (yes, a frieze!), and other details that will bring soul to the store. These pieces will be made from mesquite wood harvested from Texas trees, staying true to Radius’s local sourcing philosophy. Phil hand selected every mesquite board (this level of care from a craftsman is rare, and this level of accommodation from a mill is even more rare). We love collaborating with people like Phil that have the highest standards and take deep pride in their work. Phil hosted us a few weeks ago at his studio to share his work-in-progress, and the final products will be glorious. 

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Sourcing

We’ve been deep in research to select the products that will fill our displays. Everything from canned tomatoes without citric acid, paleo ketchup, high-integrity spices, sourdough bread, local Texas cheeses from grass-fed cows to cattle ranches, chicken farms, and produce farms. We will have about 750 non-perishable SKUs and 750 perishable SKUs in total. Along with selecting products, we've been working on a planogram to lay out where products will go on the floor plan. Below is our current thinking:

All of these products must follow our sourcing philosophy of Local. Natural. Simple. Food. 

• Local. Eating local is better for our health, small farmers, the community fabric, and the environment. And most important of all, local ingredients taste the best. Radius will have everything you need to cook local, seasonal homemade meals. Perishables will be from Texas, and select high-quality non-perishables will be from outside Texas to make seasonal cooking more approachable. Cook with local pastured meat, organic produce, heirloom grains, small-batch eggs and dairy, and wild-caught Gulf seafood plus Italian heirloom grain pasta, Sri Lankan spices, and Danish vinegars. 
• Natural. The plants and animals we eat should have an evolutionarily appropriate and regionally adaptive lifestyle, and the farms and ranches that raise them should be regenerative systems. Plants should grow in a polyculture, cows should graze on grass, chickens should eat bugs and peck seeds, fish should swim freely in the ocean. Animals should eat from the land, fertilizer should come from animal waste, water should be conserved and recycled, soil microbiomes should be protected and nurtured. 
• Simple. Food should be grown and cooked, not manufactured. Food should be selected for nutrition and taste, not transportability, growth rate, aesthetics, or size. When deciding between two options of the same product, we choose the simpler one. The spice blend that only has spices rather than the blend that has spices plus anti-caking agents. The beef provider whose cows eat grass rather than feed with a blend of grains and mineral additives. The cooking oil that is pressed or rendered rather than degummed, bleached, and deodorized.
• Food. Radius sells food. Radius is not an everything store. No towering center aisles of processed packaged goods and paper products, no endless options in every subcategory, no 30,000 square foot warehouse to navigate. Just the most delicious and nutritious local food plus a selection of spices, sauces, and non-perishables to make home cooking easier. If you can’t eat it or cook with it, you won’t find it at Radius.

As a taste of what products will be on Radius shelves, here are a few suppliers we are particularly excited about:

• Veldhuizen Cheese: From their farm in Dublin, TX, four generations of family members produce over 20 varieties of raw cow and sheep cheese from grass-fed milk. They raise Jersey and Guernsey cows and Awassi, Lacaune, and East Friesian ewes — breeds with high-fat, high-flavor milk that make the best ingredients for cheese making. 
• Mesocano Tortillas: Native Austinites making wonderful seed-oil free flour and corn tortillas from simple, high-integrity ingredients. Their corn tortillas have three ingredients — organic corn, lime, and salt. Their flour tortillas are made with Sonoran heritage flour, filtered water, baking powder, salt, and pork fat. Simple ingredients, vibrant flavor.
• Confituras Jam: Jamming and canning are perfect ways to eat local food even during off-seasons. Confituras makes jams from Texas ingredients, both foraged and grown. Availability changes with the seasons; right now they have jams made from mustang grapes, peaches, blueberries, figs, wild plums, and prickly pears.
• Minamoto Seafood: Minamoto works directly with individual fishermen in the Gulf — every item in our seafood case will have the name of the boat that caught it. We are very excited to offer fresh black drum, red snapper, shrimp, and oysters weekly plus a rotating selection of seasonal offerings like tuna, swordfish, grouper, triggerfish, amberjack, porgys, mahi mahi, and more. 

These suppliers represent the quality and integrity standards we strive for at Radius for both perishable and non-perishable products — we want to know the origin of every ingredient. This takes time when selecting over 1000 products, but it's necessary to make sure everything in our store is nutritious and delicious.

Team

As part of this herculean sourcing task, we are very proud to welcome Jarryd Brennan to Radius as our Category and Data Director! Jarryd joins us from Whole Foods and Farmhouse Delivery, and will be responsible for Radius’s product assortment, data reporting, and core inventory software systems. Jarryd has been an advocate for local farms in Austin for many years, and a trusted resource to help farmers transition to wholesale. He has a degree in biochemistry from Texas State (with honors!) and deeply cares about sustainable agriculture systems. We are very excited to welcome Jarryd and his high standards to the Radius team!

If you or anyone you know is interested in joining the team, we have job openings for butchers and associates.