Stirring the pots

Kitchen in the Market’s founders like to see what they can cook up

When I tell Tracy Morgan and Molly Herrmann I’m intrigued by their unusual business, Kitchen in the Market, they chime in with a laugh, “Us, too!” The two business partners, who met through a mutual friend, three years ago started as a commercial kitchen space, where caterers and food truck operators could rent time to prepare their wares, in the Midtown Global Market on Lake Street in Minneapolis. They added retail space to the prime location, and then began offering cooking classes and corporate events, which they view more as entertainment than education.

That last piece is the most promising, and that first piece offers stable revenue, something their bankers liked when they asked for a loan. How did they come up with the model? “We drank a lot of champagne one night,” says Morgan, whose business card says she’s in charge of retail, marketing and classes. While the two have a business plan, are forming a board of advisers, and spend lots of time discussing their vision for their company, they also clearly enjoy letting it grow in an organic way that feels right at the time. “I really need to have my hands in a lot of different pots to feel creative and fulfilled,” says Herrmann, and we asked them to explain their methods.

Upsize: Describe your business as it stands today.

Herrmann: At the core we’re a shared commercial kitchen space. There are 20 different businesses that rent from us, from food trucks to catering firms.

Morgan: The shared commercial space was here, in the Midtown Global Market. It was a loose affiliation of renters who wrote a check to the market, and that was it. At the time we met, I was a business consultant, and Molly hired me to be a consultant to her catering company. When they wanted to build out this corner of the new Midtown Global Market, they approached Molly.

Herrmann: I had started teaching a cooking class, and it was becoming popular.

Morgan: We’re now at about 40 percent lease revenue, for the commercial kitchen space, maybe 50 percent for classes and events, and then 10 percent retail.

Upsize: Why are your classes so popular?

Herrmann: It’s a different model than other cooking classes. It’s hands on. It’s communal. We never stop commercial production, so you might be cooking next to your favorite food truck. That’s inspiring to people, just like we draw inspiration from the market. We have a popular class called Cooking the Market, where we take a tour and make dinner on the fly.

Morgan:  We attract a do-it-yourself foodie. For one class, we throw a whole hog on the counter. It’s a four-hour class.

Upsize: I was just at Butcher and the Boar the other night, the popular Minneapolis restaurant, and there was a whole lot of hog around.

Morgan: We have these relationships with working chefs. It’s called Chef’s Night Off. One is with Jack Riebel of Butcher and the Boar. We bring them in, and you get to work with Jack Riebel. The chefs enjoy this environment. It’s bigger than their kitchen, usually. We’re been doing that for about a year now, and it’s a benefit for a charity, too. It’s not this buttoned up, scholarly environment.

Upsize: What’s been the most surprising success?

Morgan: We didn’t think as much of a huge chunk would be going toward private events. It’s a huge growth factor for us this past year.

Upsize: Why do you think it works?

Morgan: It helps that we start each class with a champagne cocktail—it’s our manifesto!

Upsize: How did you land in the food business?

Herrmann: For me it’s always been about food. I grew up on a farm in Florida. I was a nutritionist. I was a personal chef. It was an organic progression. It makes a lot of sense.

Morgan: I grew up here as a latchkey kid. My Mom, she didn’t cook. It was cracking open cans and boxes. I didn’t start cooking until my 20s, when I picked up a Martha Stewart appetizer cookbook, and had a party for 60 friends. It was awesome. I came out of corporate, Best Buy, Target, but no food corporations. I love to entertain. That’s my schtick.

Upsize: What does each of you contribute to the partnership?

Morgan: I bring the hardcore business experience. We balance each other nicely. Molly brings catering experience.

Herrmann: We loved to entertain at home, and when people come to Kitchen in the Market, we wanted to make people feel like they were coming into our home for a party.

Upsize: Why was that important to you?

Herrmann: That’s what we would want to do. I always said I want to get paid for being myself.

Upsize: When the business was just starting, what role did the commercial kitchen space play?

Herrmann: It was a base from which to work. We always say, let’s make it bigger. Both of us have a community-driven need. We want it to benefit the community in some way. We bring in new people to the Midtown Global Market. Sixty to 80 percent of our class attendees have never been in here before. And we’re helping food entrepreneurs, who need kitchen space. Plus charity. We’ve partnered with Mpls/St. Paul magazine with Chef’s Night Off.

Upsize: Where do you see this going?

Herrmann: Big.

Morgan: It’s always been out intention to not have just one location. We’re trying to put together a board of advisers. We want to take on Jamie Oliver, and take him down. [laughs]

Upsize: You mean Jamie Oliver, the celebrity chef, who’s taking on pink slime and other junk in school lunches?

Morgan: I have an entrepreneurial crush on him. He’s a monster.

Upsize: Why? What’s cool about him, to you?

Herrmann: He has his hands in a lot of things.

Morgan: He’s channeled into so many different places. It’s about going after something that’s not being done.

Upsize:  You seem to just let things happen. Is that true?

Herrmann: There’s a certain aspect of it to be organic, but it has to be planful and mindful of getting to that place.

Morgan: The organic part of it is aligning with our values, but we absolutely have a business plan that we work. We have a big goal in 10 years, to replicate this—but we don’t know in exactly what way.

Herrmann: We have the awareness that what we think it will be might not be what it will become.

Morgan: We do a lot of brainstorming: What do we feel passionate about? Using our desires for what we want our life to look like, and blending that with what it can do for the world.

Herrmann: We take the dreamer and the practical mode and we switch off. We’re not both in dream world all the time.

Upsize: How do you formally work on these things?

Morgan: There’s a lot of giant pieces of paper and markers, and inspirational exercises. We’re using the books by Danielle LaPorte, the Fire Starter Sessions. We pull out a couple of things from that. It kind of gets you out of your head. You have to get outside of your head.

Upsize: Why?

Morgan: It’s so easy to worry about the fan going on or not going on or the bills getting paid or not getting paid.

Herrmann: All the normal everyday business stuff can crowd everything out. Sometimes there’s that moment of clarity when you say, Ahhhhh! Every small business goes through that, if it’s not working it’s not working.

Morgan: I learned that at corporate. You have to not take it personally. Cut if off if it’s not working. In our business model we built in flexibility. That was our goal. We have three revenue streams. We got loans through NDC, the Neighborhood Development Center, plus city funding at 2 percent interest because we’re in an economic development zone.

Upsize: I bet the lenders liked the three revenue streams.

Herrmann: It was something they hadn’t seen before.

Upsize: What are your main initiatives now?

Morgan: Where are the profitability pockets and let’s go after that. The private events, that’s the biggest opportunity by far. We’re really going to chase it this year. We’re going to advertise; we’re going to be chasing down the event planners.

Upsize: What’s one lesson you’ve learned, to pass on to other business owners?

Morgan: I learned that I prefer being in a partnership. Our experience and a nice matching of skill sets, of passions. Being an entrepreneur as a consultant, you’re alone. This space, this partnership, it makes it more fun.

Herrmann: I really need to have my hands in a lot of different pots to feel creative and fulfilled. We’ve created a business that allows me to do that.

Upsize: Which came first, the need or the business?

Herrmann: Chicken or egg? I have no idea.

Upsize: I’m curious about how each of you cooks.

Herrmann: I’ve never been a cookbook person. I don’t like to be told what to do.

I love the whole, I have three ingredients, what should I do with them?

Morgan: I don’t use recipes now. I’ll use them for inspiration, but then I riff.