Start a Single-Crew Restaurant
Single-crew workplaces are game-changers for many types of neighborhood businesses, but the first ones they benefit are those that serve or sell food. A single-crew restaurant has one cook and one server, and they only require 200-300 square feet, so they’re incredibly inexpensive to set up. Some of the coolest restaurants and sandwich shops on earth are single-crew workplaces. And a single-crew restaurant is the beginning of the end of a food desert. This is the kitchen of Mike & Patty’s, the best sandwich shop in Boston. Mike serves and Patty cooks. They only have eight seats, and a line that’s always out the door.
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Open a Single-Crew Grocery
A single-crew grocery is run by one grocer. It can be less than 500 square feet, so the grocer only stocks basic commodities. No, you can’t choose from 30 types of hot sauce, as there’s likely only Tabasco, but it makes all the difference between being able to walk to the grocery and being forced to get in the car and drive. And when you can walk, it’s easy to buy a meal or two at a time instead of stocking up for a week, so your food is always fresher. This family-owned 16 x 30 foot grocery in South Carolina kepts its neighborhood from being a food desert since 1920.
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Establish a Single-Crew Coffee Shop
A single-crew coffee shop is run by one barista. It can be tiny; a hundred square feet might be more than you need if you have some seating outdoors under a canopy or awning.
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Set Up a Single-Crew Third Place
A “third place” gets its name from the idea that it’s the third most likely place for you to spend your time, with the first being home and second being work. Like the tag-line of Cheers, it “the place where everybody knows your name.” It can be a bar, where the crew is one bartender, or a coffee shop with one barista, or maybe double as a coffee shop by day and a bar by evening. Or it can also be a sandwich shop with one cook and one server, like the restaurant. But whatever kind of food or drink is served, it needs to have indoor seating and wifi so people can come and stay awhile, and maybe work while they’re there. Still, you can do a good third place in less than 400 square feet. This one is 14 feet wide and 24 feet deep; they serve coffee in the morning and rum drinks and light meals in the evening, and were turning a profit before anyone moved into the neighborhood because it became known as such a cool place to people living all around the new neighborhood.
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Reserve a Food Truck Lane
Be sure to mark off a parallel parking lane on the inside of the neighborhood square. Many streets built in the past seventy years are so wide that you can have two travel lanes and two parking lanes without widening the street. When you’re expecting a lot of neighbors to show up for a neighborhood get-together of some sort, it’ll probably overwhelm the neighborhood eating and drinking establishments, so mark off that lane around the square a few hours early and bring in the food trucks so everyone has something to eat.
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Consider Neighborhood Bee Hives
Honeybees have been dying off all over the world for several years; nobody knows why. If they all die, fruits and vegetables can’t grow because they won’t get pollinated. One out of every three bites you take is a direct result of a plant that gets pollinated by bees, and most of those bites are of some of the healthier foods we eat, so life on earth would be very different without them. Few people would consider being bee-keepers, but maybe there’s at least one in each neighborhood?
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