Retail Spotlight: The Butcher’s Daughter

Dietary patterns of photo8people in these past few years have changed drastically where more are searching for fresh vegetables and fruits rather than tender meats. “The Butcher’s Daughter” a trendy juice bar, and cafe is gaining a lot of spotlight on being a leader in this revolution towards greens. The Butcher’s Daughter, located on the corner of Elizabeth st. and Kenmare St., takes pride in being “the vegetable slaughter house: treat vegetables and fruits as a butcher would to meat.” Their menu is 100% vegetarian and non-dairy and is mostly vegan and gluten-free. The menu changes daily and incorporates seasonal ingredients. The crowd favorite at The Butcher’s Daughter is the avocado toast with mustard seeds but their array of sandwiches and salads still attract a large pool of consumers. The cafe also caters towards juicers with their long list of drinks- juices, smoothies, and exilir shots. While the cafe stands at 900 sq ft. with an open kitchen, a 35-seat capability indoors and 30-seat outdoors, there are enough employees to offer great service despite the cafe being busy.

The Butcher’s Daughter’s unique theme as a “butchery” continues throughout not only their menu but in the design of the cafe. While its common for restaurants to brand their name and logos across their merchandise and store to build brand recognition, The Butcher’s Daughter successfully markets their brand without overly stamping their name. Instead they reinforce their theme of being a butcher for vegetables with industrial decor, concrete floors, and meat hooks against earthy materials like wood, brick and greenery. Their sandwiches are served on wooden cutting board while their drinks are served in mason jars. The employees can be seen wearing The Butcher’s Daughter t-shirts that have different quirky messages e.g. “We Sell Designer Kale” at the front and their logo on the back of the shirt. These shirts are also available for customers after writing a review on yelp, which ultimately drives social media and brand marketing through customers and with customer satisfaction through incentives. The Butcher’s daughter continues their earthy charms with details in their light fixtures, menu boards, receipt cups, and their table setting.

The Butcher’s Daughter successfully creates a thematic cafe that revolves around their menu and that blends with its neighborhood location. The Butcher’s Daughter sits at the south east side of NoLIta. NoLIta was once part of Little Italy but since 1990s an influx of expensive retail boutiques and trendy restaurants and bars have outsourced the Italian residences. Residents in the NoLIta area are demographically younger and popular in the arts. Trendy competitors around The Butcher’s Daughter in NoLIta include Sweetgreen, and Juice Press. These attractive restaurants in NoLIta follow a common trend vegetable and fruit based products. While The Butcher’s Daughter caters towards the same market they have become a strong competitor in NoLIta because of their delivery in creating a distinct theme across their menu, service and design.

Enterprise Insight: Managing the Design and Construction Process

There is an enormous amount of work required in getting a foodservice enterprise open. A big part of that journey is the design and construction phase, and it is very easy to lose a lot of time and money on these processes. This month, we are going to discuss three items that can help alleviate some headache and heartache with design and construction:

  1. Know What You Want
  2. Do Your Due Diligence
  3. Constantly Reevaluate The Project

Know What You Want

Before signing with an architect, designer, or even a lease, it is important to have an idea in mind of the flow, service format, fixtures, finishes, and overall aesthetics. Bringing this collection of details to your architect and designer will help communicate to them what you’re looking for—and save a lot of dialogue and time. The closer to your own personal vision you can start the design team off with, the closer to it you will finish.

This can be as simple as a Pinterest board, or as in-depth as exact product samples; sketches on tracing paper or CAD drawings.  Whatever you’re capable of, do it and be prepared to explain what you’re looking for.

Do Your Due Diligence

Before singing a lease, bring your architect to the prospective spaces to poke, prod, and push around the site conditions. When bidding out the job, compile all of the RFI’s and ensure that the entire scope is accounted for in the bid set. Confirm with your architect of record that your space is properly equipped to handle your intended use, and if it’s not, what will the costs be.

In markets like New York, where operators are rarely going into new construction, field conditions can cause change orders that easily increase costs by 25% or more

Constantly Reevaluate The Project

You should reevaluate the project in both financial and emotional terms throughout the process. In 1995, Rita Gunther McGrath and Ian C. MacMillan developed a planning technique called “Discovery-Driven Planning.” In it, the authors laid out an approach involving five elements, with the chief one being, essentially, “what must prove true for this to work?”

Ask yourself this question throughout the design and due diligence process to ensure you’re still on target. If, for example, due diligence reveals that the space requires extensive foundation repairs that massively changes the budget, then the operator should pause and determine whether the future success of the business is enough to justify the cost.