Tag: Kimbal Musk

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Food & Wine Food & Drink

Now open: The Kitchen at Shelby Farms.

Like all good stories, this one starts with a dog. A black Lab to be exact, who, on his walk down Pearl Street in Boulder, Colorado, took it upon himself to jump into the lap of an innocent bystander. That chance encounter would not only be the start of a longtime friendship, but also a business partnership and a national effort for food advocacy.

The lap belonged to chef Hugo Matheson, and the Lab to Kimbal Musk and Jen Lewin. The three (not sure if the Lab was invited) ended up having dinner that night, prepared by Matheson, and the idea of opening a neighborhood restaurant that builds community around eating healthy food was born. Since that day in 2002, the dynamic trio has opened eight restaurants in Boulder, Denver, Fort Collins, Chicago, and Glendale. This week, they added Memphis to the roster, with the opening of The Kitchen, a “world-class neighborhood restaurant,” in the new FedEx Events Center in Shelby Farms Park.

“Memphis picked me,” Musk said at a recent fund-raiser for his nonprofit, The Kitchen Community.

In addition to creating homey, community-focused, and locally sourced restaurants, Musk, Matheson, and Lewin have developed The Kitchen Community, a series of outdoor Learning Gardens built at schools around the country to encourage healthy eating in students by incorporating the gardens into the curriculum.

It was the Learning Gardens that brought Musk to Memphis. And, of course, more kismet meetings centered around food.

“I was at a dinner, and I was sitting next to a great philanthropist from Memphis. I was telling him about our Learning Gardens, and he asked if I would consider building them in Memphis,” says Musk, who has a culinary degree from NYC’s French Culinary Institute. “I told him, ‘Sure, if someone will fund it.’ He said, ‘What if I funded it?'”

So far, Musk and company have built 65 Learning Gardens at Shelby County Schools, Jubilee Catholic Schools, and the Achievement School District, with three more approved so far. Their goal is to build 100 in Memphis.

A percentage of proceeds from the restaurants, which include The Kitchen community bistros, Next Door community pubs, and the Boulder-only Upstairs cocktail lounge, fund the Learning Gardens, as do various fund-raisers throughout the year.

But back to the restaurant.

Kimbal Musk admires the beautiful view from The Kitchen.

The 5,000-square-foot, 128-seat bistro keeps as its theme simple, clean, fresh, and local, preparing dishes like Sweet Corn Ravioli or Summer Melon & Country Ham using seasonal ingredients from local farmers, ranchers, and purveyors in and around Memphis.

And while the signature dishes such as the hand-cut garlic fries, the tomato soup, the mussels, and the Sticky Toffee Pudding will most definitely knock your socks off, the view might just be the main attraction.

Situated in the brand-new, eco-friendly FedEx Events Center as part of the $70 million Heart of the Park reimagining project near completion in Shelby Farms, the restaurant is almost entirely flanked by windows. That’s an important feature, because it sits on the southeast end of the newly expanded Patriot Lake, which recently grew from 52 acres to 80. Sunset views for days, people. There’s also a covered patio with tables and couches and lounge chairs facing the lake with western views.

With such competition, the interior needed some show stoppage, and it does not disappoint, with a blend of contemporary and rural styles that use reclaimed barn pendants, handmade wrought iron pipe sconces, and handcrafted dining tables made of reclaimed heart of pine.

Diners who stop by on Monday nights can opt to eat at the community table in the private dining room, where they are seated with strangers, and, who knows, might come up with the next idea that will change the world.

“My time in Memphis has been magical,” Musk says. “Memphis is historically an amazing food town. I want to give people a place they can go and get food that nourishes their body while creating local relationships.”

The Kitchen is the first of three endeavors Musk and his business partners have planned for Memphis. Next will be The Kitchenette, a grab-and-go cafe in the new Shelby Farms Visitors Center, and they will open one of their Next Door community pubs in the Crosstown Concourse building next year.

The Kitchen is open for dinner only until after Labor Day. Then its hours are lunch Monday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., brunch Saturday and Sunday, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., and dinner Sunday and Monday, 5 to 10 p.m., and Tuesday through Saturday, 5 to 10 p.m.

For more information, visit thekitchenbistros.com or call 729-9009.

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Food & Drink Hungry Memphis

The Latest from DeJaVu, Kimbal Musk, other news

* A DeJaVu in Midtown? 

Not exactly, says chef/owner Gary Williams. 

The Renaissance, an event venue at 1588 Madison, is now serving Williams’ Creole fare, but it is not, says Williams, an extension of the DeJaVu brand. 

The DeJaVu food truck is, however, part of the brand. Williams says the truck is ready to go and is waiting to make its debut. 

“Get out the way,” he says. “We’re coming.” 

• Did you read the story at Eater, “Why Kimbal Musk Is Opening a $5-And-Under Restaurant Concept”?

It was um … 

“This is a park [Shelby Farms where the Kitchen will be] that’s meant for all of Memphis and the population of the city lies across the income spectrum — it’s not located in a wealthy part of town,” says Musk.

and er … 

“When we look at the restaurants that serve most people in Memphis, it’s places like McDonald’s and other fast food joints,” he says. 

(just like every city in America). 

Those quibbles aside, what was interesting is the $5-and-under idea, which, according to the story will be tested out in Memphis at the Kitchenette.

The Kitchenette, at Shelby Farms, will be the grab-and-go off-shoot of the Kitchen. 

But says a spokesperson for the Kitchen, “The articles about Kimbal’s $5 restaurant are not correct. The Kitchen at Shelby Farms Park will have a sister grab ‘n go cafe in the Visitor’s Center called Kitchenette. It will feature items on the menu that visitors can eat at the Visitors Center or they can “grab ‘n go” to the park. Sandwiches, salads, coffee, etc. The information about $5 pricing is not accurate.

“Our Next Door concept opening in Crosstown Concourse will have simple, real food at affordable prices that are in-line with casual dining restaurants such as Chilis or TGI Fridays.”

The Kitchen holds a grand opening fund-raiser on August 13th.  

• Wine in grocery stores starting today. First 50 people to purchase wine at Kroger get a corkscrew. 

• The Memphis Food & Wine Festival has been announced for October. 

The event, to be held at the Botanic Garden, will be hosted by Jose Gutierrez and will feature Jean-Georges Vongerichten (huge!). 

Cuisine will be from 28 chefs, both local and nationally known.

Tickets are $200 per person, with prices to go up to $250 September 15th. 

• The Memphis Caribbean Jerk Festival is July 16th at the Water Tower Pavilion on Broad. Expect all kinds of Caribbean dishes — from jerk to veggies and more. There will also be a domino tournament. 

* Why the hell not? 
 
(I liked ’em.)

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Food & Drink Hungry Memphis

The Kitchen Grand Opening Set

The Kimbal Musk-led restaurant The Kitchen, in Shelby Farms, is having a grand opening on August 13th, 6-11 p.m. 

There will be food, of course, plus cocktails, live music, and an auction. The event will benefit the Kitchen Community, an ambitious program with the goal of establishing 100 learning gardens at area schools by 2018. 

Tickets are $125.

The Kitchen will serve “farm fresh” food and will include grab-and-go items for park-goers. Miles McMath, formerly of St. Jude, will lead the kitchen. 

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Food & Wine Food & Drink

A Q&A with the Kitchen’s Kimbal Musk.

In 1999, at the tender age of 27, Kimbal Musk sold an internet company for $307 million. Since then, through companies like PayPal, Tesla Motors, and SpaceX, he has been instrumental in shaping the way we think about tech. Now he wants to help Americans transition off of highly processed, industrial food, and he’s making his next big move here in Memphis.

In May, Musk announced that he would open two new restaurants: one at Shelby Farms Park and another inside Crosstown Concourse. The restaurants — The Kitchen and Next Door — offer simple American dishes at reasonable prices. And here’s the kicker: More than 50 percent of the ingredients will be locally produced. Musk originated the concept in his hometown of Boulder, Colorado, and has since opened seven across Colorado and one in Chicago.

At the same time, through his nonprofit, Musk will build 100 so-called “Learning Gardens” at Shelby County Schools. These are outdoor classrooms for elementary, middle, and high school students that incorporate fresh fruits and vegetables into existing math, science, and health curricula. The Flyer recently caught up with Musk to talk about beet burgers, Big Macs, and the long road to Memphis.

Flyer: Was there a moment when you decided to give up tech?

Kimbal Musk: On Valentine’s Day in 2010, I went down a ski hill on an inner tube. I got to the bottom of the run, the tube flipped, and I broke my neck. I was paralyzed, horizontal for two months, and I just kind of said, fuck this shit. I’m not gonna do technology any more. I don’t care if it’s hard, I’m gonna do food.

Why food?

Technology is amazing, but it will continue to remove our normal ways of connecting with each other. Using our meals to get together with friends, family, and coworkers — I think it will be our last and most important way to form meaningful bonds.

In your latest TED talk, you spend a lot of time talking about “industrial food.” What do you mean by that?

Industrial food is optimized for one thing: price. Whether it’s a Twinkie or a Big Mac, it becomes a transport mechanism for an enormous amount of calories with very low nutrition. The end result is that we are simultaneously hungry and obese. We have to get people off that, or society as we know it will collapse.

What’s the alternative?

I call it real food, food where you’re asking, is it nourishing to the consumer, to the community, the farmer, the planet? A Big Mac has 47 ingredients. One is meat, one is flour for bread, and the other 45 are a total nightmare. A real burger would be ground beef with some flour. It’s a very simple concept: What you see is what you get.

What do you say to someone who has never tried beets or kale?

I would tell them to try our beet burger. It’s fantastic! I had one for lunch today. Last year, at one of our Denver locations, we sold 100,000 cheeseburgers and 50,000 beet burgers. That’s a ridiculous number for a non-beef burger. The truth is, if you’re replacing meat, it has to be better. Not the same — it actually has to be better.

Why Memphis?

Memphis is positioned to be one of the next big cities. Where real estate is concerned, it’s a blank canvas. We can find hundreds of acres of farmland right around the city, convert it to organic, and start growing real food in a matter of months. You can’t do that in Colorado. In Colorado, all the land is taken, and it’s taken by high-margin products.

After The Kitchen announced its new locations, there was a perception among some Memphians that you were planning to “fix” them or teach them how to eat. How do you respond to that?

I don’t feel that way, and I’m sorry if there was a misunderstanding. In fact, I believe there’s an amazing food renaissance currently happening in Memphis, and I see what I’m doing as fitting very neatly with that. If there’s a problem, it isn’t Memphis, and it isn’t barbecue. It’s cheap carbohydrates and high-calorie, low-nutrient food, which is actually a problem for the whole country.

Why is it important to eat food that is locally produced?

First, the money stays locally, which is important for any community that’s looking to thrive. And second, when you know where your food comes from, you’re more likely to be a good steward of the land. It’s a virtuous cycle. When you have a relationship with your farmer, you can trust the quality of their food. Meanwhile, the farmer can take pride in her work because she knows and loves the community she’s feeding

Talk about the Learning Gardens.

They’re designed for kids to play in them. They’re designed for teachers to teach in them. There’s no fence around them. They’re right there on the playground, so the kids can enjoy them every day. It’s a permanent addition to the school.

What do kids actually learn there?

We integrate into the existing curriculum — science lessons mostly. It’s a fun way to learn how plants grow, how water evaporates, everything from basic math to biology. The kids love it, and the results are improved academic engagement. They learn more, their test scores go up. And they come back to class refreshed and alert, because they’ve just spent 45 minutes outdoors.

You’re working with Shelby Farms Park to develop a large-scale organic farm. How do you think that will affect the market for local produce?

What we’ve found is that, in a place like Memphis, the demand for this kind of food is actually 10 to 100 times higher than the current supply. The supply just has to be there. Ten years ago, when we started in Colorado, local farmers were wary of getting on board with this project. They didn’t know if we were gonna be around next year or not. Today it’s a $20 million industry in Colorado alone, and they can’t keep up with demand.

Do you think there’s a role for small- and medium-size farms?

I have this argument with farmers in Colorado all the time. I tell them, why don’t you just go bigger? Go bigger, go bigger, go bigger. But then I had a conversation with Mary Phillips at Roots Memphis, and she actually changed my mind. In the end, I think there is a role to play for small- and medium-sized farmers. They’re not just in it for the money. They’re in it for the community, for the amazing lifestyle, producing fantastic real food for Memphis. So even if they’re sold out — which causes me frustration — it’s a wonderful thing for the community.

Almost 30 percent of Memphians live in poverty. How do they figure into your vision?

I’m absolutely determined to figure out a way for them to eat locally. It will require a lot more supply. And it will require scale: You can’t make it affordable with 20-acre farms. But once you start talking about hundreds of acres … now you’re onto something. We absolutely have to produce local food at scale if we want it to be relevant to the community as a whole.

You went to culinary school. What was that like?

It was really intense. I’m a six-foot-four guy, and these little five-foot-tall guys, these little round French chefs, would scream at me for six hours. It was surreal, right out of Full Metal Jacket. Extreme verbal abuse. We started out with 18 people in our class, and only six made it through to graduation.

The first restaurant opened in Paris in 1861, and people have been running them ever since. With The Kitchen, are you doing something new or improving an existing model?

Today we have this idea that food is fuel. You put food in your stomach and then move on with your day. At The Kitchen, we’re working hard to bring back the idea of the restaurant as a community hub. You can feel connected because your friends and family are there with you. Also because you’re connected to the farms where the food comes from. And finally because you know that what you’re doing is helping to teach kids in local schools.

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News The Fly-By

TEDxMemphis Launches This Weekend

TEDx will be arriving in Memphis this weekend, and it’s all thanks to a high school senior.

Patton Orr, a senior at Memphis University School, has been interested in TED Talks — which stands for Technology, Entertainment, and Design — since he was a freshman. And now Orr is the brain behind launching a Memphis version, which will feature multiple monologues of 18-minutes or less on one particular topic, on Saturday, August 29th.

Kimbal Musk

The one-day TEDx event will feature entrepreneur Kimbal Musk, hip-hop artist Marco Pavé, Memphis Grizzlies President of Business Operations Jason Wexler, Church Health Center CEO Dr. Scott Morris, New Ballet Ensemble founder Katie Smythe and 12 others, ranging from backgrounds of education and art to business and nonprofit. TEDxMemphis is sold out, but the event will be available to watch online around September 7th.

Marco Pave

Orr’s sister, who attends the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, attended a TED conference and eventually went on to work in their TEDx program, which helps independent organizers create a TED-like speaker event in their own cities.

Orr became curious about the organization and its events. He found himself looking at a map of TEDx offerings and saw a hole.

“To me, it looked like Memphis was really the largest market in the United States still remaining without a TEDx event,” he said. “So instead of waiting around for someone to organize that, I decided to do it myself.”

After Orr got into the process, he realized he couldn’t do TEDx justice if he continued alone.

“I’m only 18 years old,” he said. “I soon realized if I tried to control this conference myself or be the sole person trying to organize it, it was just not going to be the kind of large event that could really impact the city the way I wanted it to.”

Ownership over the event wasn’t important to him, Orr said. Anna Mullins, the director of marketing and communications from the New Memphis Institute, attended the early committee meetings and stepped in at the request of Orr. The New Memphis Institute focuses on attracting and retaining local talent.

TEDx events usually have an overarching theme. TEDxMemphis’ theme this year is “What’s Next?”

“The ideas are typically thought-provoking, innovative, provocative in some way,” Mullins said. “They’ve become very diverse in their topics. There are really popular talks that are three minutes long that talk about tying your shoes, and there are talks that are 18 minutes long that talk about food scarcity globally.”

“We really see this as an opportunity for ideas to converge and challenge one another,” Mullins said. “Hopefully, it’ll spark discussion.”

“So many people, and teenagers especially, are always saying, ‘Get me out of Memphis,'” Orr said. “It just makes me sad. I love to see when people take pride in our city, when people share ideas with each other, when people showcase the positives in Memphis, because there are so many. There are so many great things happening here, especially within the last couple of years.”

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Letters To The Editor Opinion

What They Said (May 21, 2015) …

CREDIT: Greg Cravens

Greg Cravens

On Bianca Phillips’ post, “Citizens Make Demands of Memphis Zoo in Petition” …

The Greensward is for ass parking only.

Scott Banbury

A responsible approach to growth at the zoo would have called for appropriate actions to handle the additional vehicular traffic generated by the building of additional exhibits. That reasonable course has not been followed. Instead, the zoo has become the playground for well-heeled donors who are perfectly happy to donate funds to build new exhibits but who ignore the problems caused by additional traffic generated by those exhibits.

The alignment of parking spots in the current zoo parking facility does not utilize the space for maximum efficiency. The plan to reconfigure the current parking lot will have a positive effect. That effort is long overdue. Additional parking is necessary.

The construction of a parking facility alongside the North Parkway entrance to the zoo, across from Rhodes College, is a possible solution. When the city vacates the current maintenance facility on East Parkway, a parking facility, either a surface lot or a garage, which would serve all attractions at the park, could be constructed.

The only thing missing from a possible solution is the dedication of zoo leaders, city leaders, and zoo donors to work for a solution that does not involve the continuing destruction of the Greensward. The current situation is unsustainable. Sustainability is one of the key goals expressed by the organizations that guide and accredit zoos and aquariums. The experience offered to visitors could be enhanced by providing parking, which preserves the Greensward. If the zoo is to be faithful to the mission to conserve, it must seek a course that differs from the one that has been taken for decades. The zoo, and the leaders thereof, must learn the art of being neighborly.

Enrico Dagastino

On Toby Sells’ Fly-By story, “Multi-millionaire’s The Kitchen restaurant promises healthy food, leads to healthy debate” …

Well, Kimbal, we can always go on a diet, skip a third helping, but ugly goes to the bone (are we seeing a theme here?).

CL Mullins

Please note that Musk is not denigrating Memphis, the author of the [The Medium] blog post is. And, really, how many people have seen that? Is The Medium a big thing?

The only thing that Musk says is that line about opening in other, larger cities, if not for the social aspect. And that’s just good business. What’s wrong with that?

Frankly, I’m really excited about The Kitchen. I wish he would open other locations before waiting for Crosstown.

nobody

On Tim Sampson’s May 14th Rant …

I read with some vexation Tim Sampson’s “Rant” about Pamela Geller and her “Draw Mohammed” event. Well, at least, it started out that way before he digressed about being kidnapped in Peru, but I digress. Seems Tim thinks that Pamela Geller is nuts for doing it. While, yeah, probably. That’s okay, Tim, you don’t have to date her, and, no, Tim, the media has not just focused on the attackers — she has been in for her fair share of abuse. And, yes, I’m sure she did it just to be provocative and is such a nasty person that as you pointed out, they won’t even let her in the United Kingdom. She may even go out of her way to step on ants for all I know. Having said all this, so what?

Let’s look at the larger issue. If you draw the wrong cartoon or maybe I should say the right cartoon about the wrong person, someone may very well kill you or at least try to kill you because you offended their religious sensibilities. And your rant is about Pamela Geller? What’s wrong with this picture? Where’s your perspective? What about free speech? Remember the first amendment of our constitution where we get to say, write, and draw things even if it is offensive? They don’t have that in the United Kingdom. Just saying.

So, Tim, the next time you want to rant about something, try ranting about the mindset that thinks it’s okay to kill artists if you don’t like what they draw. No one should die for a cartoon.

Bill Runyan

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News The Fly-By

The Kitchen Raises Ire and Questions

CREDIT: Shelby Farms Park Conservancy

Tempers flared and questions arose when news surfaced last week that a new restaurant concept called The Kitchen was coming to town.

Multi-millionaire Kimbal Musk owns the Boulder, Colorado-based restaurant chain and plans to open The Kitchen inside a new visitors center at Shelby Farms Park in 2016 and a more casual concept called The Kitchen Next Door at Crosstown Concourse in 2017.

Many Memphians looked beyond local stories that heralded the chain as “acclaimed” (The Commercial Appeal) and “renowned” (Memphis Daily News) and found a long feature at medium.com about Musk’s plans headlined “The Musk Who Wants to Change the Way We Eat.”

The story painted an ugly picture of Memphis, going beyond the typical “fattest city” designation to call Memphis “a toxic combination of cholesterol and poverty.” Musk saw these problems as an “opportunity for change,” and he and The Kitchen were the ones to bring it, according to the story.

Shelby Farms Park Conservancy

Rendering of new Shelby Farms Park visitors center

In fact, he said coming to Memphis wasn’t about the money, even calling the move “questionable” as a financial decision, according to the story. “If we didn’t have the social aspect, we would go to Las Vegas, New York, Los Angeles, places like that,” Musk was quoted as saying. It was this idea that rubbed many the wrong way.

“Musk has an interesting vision and plan, and I hope he succeeds,” Memphian Caroline Mitchell Carrico wrote in the Medium story’s comments. “However, I also bristle whenever my city is portrayed as a backwater that is dependent on outside saviors.”

Backlash like this (and worse) permeated social media at the end of the week. It even prompted local entrepreneur Taylor Berger to pen a blog post called “Kimbal Musk Is Not An Asshole,” a sort of backlash to the backlash.

“Take it on faith, y’all, that Kimbal Musk is not here to pillage our city,” Berger wrote. “He is exactly the kind of person, with the kind of vision and power to execute, that we need right now if we have any hope of becoming a world-class city.”

Musk is widely credited for shepherding the farm-to-table dining movement and said in a news statement he is “thrilled” to bring it to Memphis.

“Memphis is a vibrant and diverse city that is on the verge of a Real Food (sic) renaissance,” Musk said in the statement.

That raised the ire of Tsunami chef and owner Ben Smith, who has been locally sourcing ingredients since 1998 and hosting a farmers market in his parking lot for the past three years.

“My initial reaction was, Wait a minute, man, there are some people who have been here for a number of years that have really focused on this farm-to-table thing,” Smith said. “The interaction and relationship between farmers and Memphis restaurants is already well-established and well-supported.”

Questions also arose about The Kitchen’s locations — both in taxpayer-supported venues — that could have gone to local talent.

Shelby Farms Park Executive Director Laura Morris said her group issued a request for proposals, made a presentation to the Memphis Restaurant Association, and formed an ad hoc committee to “spread the word” about the opportunity. But the park never got a deal on the table from local restaurateurs, she said.

The Kitchen did not get a special deal or special incentives, she said.

“Looking at the lease, I’d say it’s a little bit above market for the park,” Morris said. “We did pretty well.”

The Kitchen will lease the restaurant and the grab-and-go counter at Shelby Farms for $172,260 for the first five years, according to the lease. Rent will rise slightly in the next five years.

Morris said she was aware that not everyone is excited about bringing in an outside operator, “but it’s not like we put a Cheesecake Factory at the park.”