Local Restaurateurs Learn a New Way to Dish Up RI
Hope & Main’s Restaurant Rescue Brings Favorite Menu Items to Market
With Covid-19 leaving many talented chefs at loose ends, Hope & Main, the state’s preeminent food business incubator, recognized an opportunity: Teach restaurant owners how to produce beloved menu items for retail sale, thereby keeping employees employed and diversifying revenue. Many already had been interested, pre-pandemic, in marketing customers’ favorites for retail sale, but lacked the time and bandwidth to do so.
“Covid has greatly accelerated future food trends into the present,” said Lisa Raiola, Hope & Main president and founder. “There’s a whole new sector of the food economy. Restaurants, which make products as good or better than those [in stores], already have a customer following and a community of support.”
Given the enormous complexities of preparing and offering consumables for retail sale, especially for creative chefs, Raiola and her team developed Dish Up RI, an initiative to teach restaurant owners the essentials of universal product codes (UPCs) and nutritional labeling, producing, packaging, branding, marketing and delivering their value-added products.
Rhode Island’s largest local grocery chain, Dave’s Marketplace, is committed to stocking all of the items made in the new venture. (Products will be available at all Dave’s Marketplace stores, as well as many retail stores and other grocery stores throughout the state.) Hope & Main staff, a diverse array of consultants and Kenny Banalewicz, Dave’s Marketplace specialty food/produce buyer, are teaching these skills to applicants on a first-come, first-served basis.
Long a supporter of local food and beverage companies, Dave’s Marketplace recognizes Covid’s impact on local businesses. “We want to help Dish Up RI participants bring their iconic items to the retail marketplace,” said Banalewicz. “Restaurant owners’ relentless passion for food makes it a pleasure to work with them; we can’t wait for the rollout.”
Participants can produce goods at their own restaurant or at Hope & Main’s kitchens or retain Hope & Main as a co-packer. An Innovation Network Matching Grant of $143,874 from RI Commerce Corporation paid for equipment and facility renovations, and the CARES Act provided $130,231 for technical assistance and training services.
With state agencies, the Rhode Island Hospitality Association and the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce promoting Dish Up RI, Hope & Main received many more applicants than anticipated. “In a regular year, Hope & Main launches 50 new food companies; through Dish Up RI, we launched two dozen new products in under three months,” said Raiola. “We’re giving Rhode Islanders who want these restaurants to survive another way to support them.”
Find these and other Dish Up RI products, videos of the makers and much more at MakeFoodYourBusiness.org/DishUpRI/
Save the Date! Dish Up RI: From our state to your plate!
Be sure to visit Dave’s Marketplace, 1000 Division Road, East Greenwich, on May 21, 2021. Find all the products from Dish Up RI and buy your favorites to take home.
