People often think of Richmond’s startup ecosystem as being in biotech and software, but another leg in the stool has been forming — food.
Richmond has always had a good culinary reputation. Restaurants like Mama J’s and Can Can Brasserie have been around for years, and ZZQ brought a national reputation.
“We are really spoiled in Richmond,” said Jordan Hanna, sales and marketing director at Hatch, a food incubator. “We have a wonderful food scene, but it’s really a niche community that hasn’t really got its footing yet.”
Hatch has quietly built out an ecosystem to help budding food entrepreneurs in the region. It was founded in 2019 when food entrepreneur Austin Green, Richmond investor Brad Cummings and real estate developer Lynx Ventures came together. They formed Hatch Kitchen RVA in an old tobacco warehouse in Manchester. To start, a 9,000-square-foot commercial kitchen was opened. It functions much like a coworking space for food entrepreneurs. Business owners pay a monthly membership and get access to the space and its equipment. The company declined to give revenue numbers.
Hanna said the facility is unique to Richmond. Members can test a concept or build out an idea without huge upfront costs. Food trucks, caterers and packaged goods producers all utilize the space.
Over the years, Hatch has had a number of success stories. So far, 22 companies have left the food incubator and opened brick-and-mortar locations. Chewy’s Bagels started in the kitchen and now has a successful retail space on Cary Street. Cobra Burger started with a pop-up at Hatch and has moved into a retail location. Hanna said the owners of Cobra Burger even met their major financial backer at Hatch.
“We know that no one is going to be with us forever,” Hanna said. “They are going to graduate. It’s all good stories for us. If people are succeeding here, then that’s wonderful.”
But back in 2020, Hatch looked at other ways to expand the food ecosystem and opened a contract manufacturing facility and a meat processing unit. Both failed.
Hanna said contract manufacturing is a real need for food products companies and the nearest location is in North Carolina. As a food product company scales, it reaches a point where products can no longer be produced by hand. But after starting the two businesses, Hanna said Hatch realized contract manufacturing and meat processing were more complex than expected, and the company could not manage the businesses in an effective way.
“Unfortunately, we just did not execute on that the way we wanted to,” she said. “I think it takes a good business to recognize when something is not working out and be able to cut our losses.”
Logistics and warehousing, on the other hand, has been a success. Food companies need storage, both warehousing and cold storage. In 2021, Hatch renovated another former tobacco warehouse and started offering storage and logistics. The space quickly filled up, and Hatch is exploring renovating more space.
“The big thing that we found is that anyone who comes to Hatch, and they get to the point where they are selling wholesale nationwide, they have to store the product,” Hanna said.
Nightingale Ice Cream Sandwiches and Joyebells Sweet Potato Pie are two examples. Both have national distribution and have utilized Hatch’s storage and logistics capacities.
“Nightingale actually has moved fully into this warehouse next to us,” Hanna said. “They went from having a small space in the shared kitchen to having a 20,000-square-foot warehouse.”
Last year, Hatch opened Hatch Local, a food hall on Hull Street. The location has seven different vendors and sells directly to consumers. It is a place where budding restaurateurs can set up shop in a low-cost manner.
And it has already had a success story: Chef Bobo Catoe Jr. and Lee Gregory, owner of local seafood restaurant Alewife, are opening Odyssey Fish in Richmond’s West End. The restaurant is billed as a combination between Alewife and the Odyssey Fish eatery that opened in Hatch Local. It will offer seafood and Mediterranean-inspired cuisine.
Hanna said Hatch is going to continue to explore new ways to expand the food ecosystem.
“When it comes to Hatch, we want to keep finding all these issues and where the bottleneck is and make them better,” Hanna said.
Cummings and Green no longer have an ownership stake in Hatch. Real Estate developer Lynx Ventures purchased the entire operation in 2022.
