094 - Joy Crump, FoodE, Mercantile. How do you turn first-time visitors into regulars?

Edacious

Revitalization Work. With conscious growth. In a bank vault. Welcome to Episode 94 and my conversation with Chef Joy Crump of FoodE and Mercantile in Fredericksburg. I was immediately taken with Joy when I met her during the Fire, Flour, Fork Women in Food panel where her thoughtfulness on the topic of running a kitchen stayed with me for hours afterward.

We had this conversation inside FoodE, a converted bank building. In the vault of all places, which has excellent acoustics! Joy and her business partners were very conscious about keeping the original bones intact, using what was in place, rather than gutting everything and starting from scratch, hiring craftsmen to painstakingly restore every part and piece. Was there pushback from the community when she decided to renovate? How did her knowledgeable partner make the renovation process easier because of his background? How was this overhaul financed? If you're a woman, and even if you're not, Joy's story will CURL YOU HAIR. Make you angry. Galvanize you to take action on this International Women's Day. I'm still doing a facepalm.

"You want to find that common ground where you're celebrating what has past and also giving new life to what's coming ahead. That's what preservation is."

"We did so many things to keep the heart and spirit of the building while still celebrating it, and making it functional so that people can continue to enjoy it. I'm so proud to be in here. To be a tenant, to be a part owner, to have witnessed the process."

Joy describes Fredericksburg as a community "Tumbling Forward". What does she mean by that? We discuss this in depth, especially since I feel Charlottesville is experiencing something similar.

When Joy first started FoodE, all she knew was that she wanted to cook good food. The concept developed over time and only after the third restaurant opened, a brewpub called Six Bears And A Goat which recently opened in Stafford. As she states, once you have a group of establishments it behooves you to have some sort of uniform concept. Like Edacious, the one word she and her partners Beth Black and Jeremy Harrison kept coming back to was community. Places where anyone is welcome. Where folks can drop by anytime.

"We want you to come in wearing jeans and flip-flops. We want it to feel like it's a place where you can walk by on Wednesday and happen to come in and get a great meal, not that you have to make reservations a month ahead...Fredericksburg has driven who we are and what our brand is and now we're trying to catch up and articulate it in other places we want to build."

To build that customer relationship, Joy and her partners listened closely to concerns, revamping the menu, adding dishes people requested, removing others, and shaping the space according to the customer's needs. This promotes loyalty and customers who choose to spend their dollar at FoodE and Mercantile regularly. Because as she states so well, you don't pay the bills simply by having a good graduation weekend or a ton of weddings.

The menu at FoodE is a fantastic mixture of "Naughty Food" (Joy's term) and healthy dishes, food that is clean. So after enjoying a melty pimento toast for lunch you can follow it up with a delicious winter greens salad and leave feeling sated and satisfied.

"These are the best ingredients, prepared by the best chefs that we can afford at the most affordable price that we can offer. It's our version of gourmet. It's care and love for the ingredients."

"I love fried chicken...(but) if you feel like when you walk out of here that you're SO FULL then you're probably not going to come back for a week or two until you're ready to have that feeling again...We were built on the guest who came literally two or three times a week. If a guest is going to come two or three times a week a) your menu has to change b) they've got to feel good when they stand up from the table and c) you can't overserve them...our portions are controlled...I'd rather see you twice at $10 a pop than once for $30."

"My goal is to make you remember something and feel something different at the same time. I love chicken skins, but I've never had them on top of salad before. It should bring a memory and it should also be a new experience. That's what I try to do with literally every single dish. Elevate it by what you remember."

Why is it important for Joy to be conscious about creating a healthy, nurturing, family environment in her kitchen? Why does being a social entrepreneur not only help give back but also revitalize an entire community, building relationships not only with customers but other business owners? Why is Whole Food Utilization important? How does she walk the delicate line between supporting local farmers and meeting her bottom line while keeping customers happy? How did Joy's Atlanta background inform her experience? Did her appearance on Top Chef Season 12 inform her cooking?

We cover it all in this episode. Joy's energy and enthusiasm and thoughtfulness made me want to work with her on the regular. So well spoken. And her food? Phenomenal. Day trips to Fredericksburg are going to be a regular part of the rotation. I'll probably listen to this episode on the way there. Enjoy! Happy International Women's Day!