Raise a Glass to Union Kitchen!
In the words of Co-Owner Jim Watkins:
Food at Sociable has been through quite the evolution. Let me tell you the back story. When we opened this business we didn’t even think we were going to have a taproom, and we intended to strictly be a production cidery. Fortunately a series of unexpected regulatory surprises and licensing requirements brought us to a bridge we did not expect to cross; opening the city’s first cider taproom. We quickly realized that a taproom requires something for patrons to eat, so we jumped on the food truck bandwagon, and we were off to the races.
The problem with the food truck business is everyone wants to work warm, sunny, busy Saturdays, and nobody wants to work cold, snowy, quiet Tuesdays. You would be shocked at how many people either no-showed or “had car troubles” on those snowy mid-week bookings. We were pretty sure there was a better way to build this mousetrap, so we started considering what a resident food truck would look like. That is, a vendor that gets the summer Saturdays and the winter Tuesdays all the same.
Enter Chef Ian Gray. Ian was one of the first restaurateurs in the Cities to reach out to us for a keg of Freewheeler when we started self-distributing. So, when we heard that he was closing his uptown brick and mortar, we reached out to ask him if he’d be interested in making NE MPLS his new home. And so was born Minneapolis’s first resident food truck, the Curious Goat. Ian’s goat cheese curds (and the rest of the menu for that matter) were the kind of item that left an impression, so when he moved on to his next venture we knew we had some big shoes to fill.
We learned a lot with that first residency. Sociable patrons seemed to love a rotating menu and shareable items, and they grew to adore the food (almost) as much as the cider. Dinner at Sociable became as big of a reason to visit as a couple of pints with friends. It was Red River Kitchen from Chef JD Fratzke and business partner Matty O’Reilly (of Bar Brigade fame) who stepped into Ian’s shoes and got us thinking about food as more central to our business plan that we’d ever expected.
A plan began to come together for us to develop the first chef incubator of its kind. The concept was simple. Create a space for chefs and restaurateurs to park for six months to a year where they can develop / refine their menu, their brand, their customer following, and if they so choose their business plan for whatever their next endeavor might be. Best case scenario, we create a pipeline of new Freewheeler keg customers, worst case scenario we keep our regulars coming back to experience a rotating selection of the area’s restaurant rising stars.
Wade got to work on building a financial model, and tracking down a vendor that could build us a custom food trailer. It was my job to find our next Chef. Wade got the short end of the stick on that one… my job was easy. I knew exactly where to start. Chef Yia Vang of Union Kitchen. Yia had built a reputation as one of the coolest pop-up vendors in the city. He had catered a few events for us with his famous Hmong cuisine that, from my perspective, was equal parts bold-creative and tried-and-true comfort food. He was the perfect fit, and I can’t tell you how pumped we were that he agreed.
Union Kitchen’s residence started as a six-month stint that evolved into a two-year partnership. We just couldn’t quit each other. When Yia told us about his plans for his brick-and-mortar concept, Vinai, we felt an instant interplay of both joy and sorrow. Sorrow at losing a team that has been named Best Restaurant in the Twin Cities by both MN Monthly and MPLS St. Paul Mag, and joy that this dynamic team was realizing the dream of opening their first restaurant. The incubator worked, not because of anything we did, but because a great team had access to a space to really flex their creative muscles.
The months with Union Kitchen/ Vinai at Sociable have been an absolute pleasure. Sure, I blame Yia, Mike, Chandra, Miguel, TJ, Micah, Kenny, Chris, Ger, and Amanda for the 20 pounds I put on in that period, but I’m not going to hold it against them. The Sociable team is so happy for you all, and can’t wait to tip back a few pints (and eat a few pounds of Hilltribe chicken) at Vinai. If you haven’t yet, check out Vinai’s website vinaimn.com, and sneak in to get one more meal with the team before their last call this Saturday October 10th from 2-8pm.