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Photo by Bill Straus
Vinaigrette. Lexington, KY 5-8-17. (c) 2017 Photo by Bill Straus.
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Photo by Bill Straus
Vinaigrette. Lexington, KY 5-8-17. (c) 2017 Photo by Bill Straus.
The writings of Wendell Berry have inspired countless readers to change their lives in many ways, including living better through eating nutritious whole foods. Count the partners behind Vinaigrette Salad Kitchen among his fans and devotees. The young owners not only eat healthful foods, they’re also making a living from serving the same to others.
“We thought there might be a niche in the salad world that we could handle,” said Jeremiah Sizemore, one of six partners in the 22-month-old company, along with his sister, director of marketing Susannah Sizemore. It’s fourth fast-casual unit opened May 15 in Hamburg, just weeks after No. 3 opened in Louisville. More could follow “once we get all these running correctly. We’re pretty sure we’ll go slowly for now, and unless they do poorly, we’re looking at opening in Cincinnati, Dayton, Columbus, Knoxville and Nashville, too.”
This is the third concept operated by two of the partners: Jeremiah Sizemore and Bryce Anderson. The two have 42 Breakout Games franchises and eight Orange Leaf frozen yogurt operations. Though a narrowly defined, single-item concept, Jeremiah Sizemore said Orange Leaf gave him and Anderson a taste of food service. They liked it and wanted more of it, but knew they’d need help to start and grow a restaurant company.
Filling a niche
A study of the overall foodservice market showed less than a dozen sizable salad-only concepts operating nationally, none in Lexington and just one in Louisville, the now-closed Chop Shop. Jeremiah Sizemore said that helped them refine their market position as providers of food that would be wholesome, pure, healthful and have an accessible price point. Recognizing a wide gap “between fine dining and Taco Bell,” they saw lots of space for higher ticket items than those found in typical fast-food restaurants yet well below sticker shock threshold at the other extreme.
“There’s a lot of economic potential with this model,” he said.
With higher-end, customizable salads meeting all their criteria, they knew they had a starting point. Yet they also knew they lacked a clear path going forward. Anderson volunteered to be the concept’s chef, but it didn’t take long for his partners to convince the IT veteran that he lacked the experience the role required. When the group called local restaurateur and chef Ouita Michel for help, her own commitment to opening her new restaurant, Honeywood, by May, led her to bring in her longtime consulting chef, Sara Gibbs, for the assist.
Gibbs said multiple menu tastings were held at Michel’s Holly Hill Inn restaurant in Midway “to weed things out to get to their core menu.” The chefs then helped design the first Vinaigrette space, tutored the partners on how to choose and deal with suppliers and then mapped out food production procedures.
“We showed some things for better efficiency, ways to manage their food costs and helped them work out new combinations for their menus,” Gibbs said.
Gibbs, whose résumé covers decades in professional and home kitchens as a personal chef, said she enjoyed working with the 20-somethings.
“They have such enthusiasm for the work and the energy to do it,” Gibbs said with a laugh. “They’ve been so much fun to work with.”
Menu meets experience
Moving customers through the operation is straightforward: Each person orders from a 10-item Signature Salad menu before personalizing it with six protein choices, 11 dressings options and textural items such as breads and sunflower seeds. If standard offerings don’t intrigue guests, they can create their own salad from several dozen options.
A three-soup menu includes hearty standards like sausage, kale and potato, as well as the ever-popular creamy tomato and basil. Beverages are divided between bottled options and a rotating line of house-made lemonades accented with cucumber, strawberry, blackberry and more. Desserts include gourmet Nectar brand ice pops in clever flavors of raspberry-hibiscus, coffee, strawberries and cream and more.
Per-person check average is about $11.50. Store sizes average around 1,800 square feet, though Jeremiah Sizemore said 1,500 is close to ideal. Seating, depending on the location, is about 60. The partners declined to disclose unit sales figures.
With chefs like Michel and Gibbs already having refined the menu, kitchen staffs only need to execute it, Anderson said.
“Our job is to keep breaking it down to simplified steps for people who are prep cooks, not trained chefs,” Anderson said. “If it’s difficult to do quickly, especially in the lunch rush, we’ve got to keep tweaking it.”
Speed is especially important with conveniences such as call-ahead ordering for drive-through pick-up, an option at the company’s original location on Sharkey Way, just off Leestown Road. Online ordering and delivery options are in discussion as well.
Friendly competition
The partners credit other outside mentors for their success, saying Lee Greer, president of the Greer Cos., and Rob Perez, owner-operator of three-unit Saul Good Restaurant & Pub, have offered ample advice. With extensive chain restaurant backgrounds — Greer with Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen, Perez with Hard Rock Café and ESPN Zone — Vinaigrette’s partners are getting good input on real estate selection and internal processes. What seemed like a small suggestion from Perez to toss each salad in its dressing before handing them to guests was eye opening, Jeremiah Sizemore said. Perez said the young restaurateurs are learning that small touches equate to guest convenience and a more engaging experience.
“With dressing left on the side, in my mind, I have to do my own work and it’s not a finished product,” Perez said. “When [employees] do the work, the dressing goes on evenly, and it looks better. But if they want it on the side, they can have it that way.”
Perez said he’s also helped the partners understand the nature of the modern restaurant marketplace, and its ongoing labor shortage. Therefore, every efficiency achieved before service begins means salads can be made faster when customers order, he said.
“When it’s difficult to find people, you have to talk about those processes … and equipment choices,” Perez said.
Though not in direct competition with Saul Good, Perez said that sharing his experience with the new operators is simply doing the right thing for the industry overall.
“They’re experiencing what we’re experiencing; we’re all in this together,” he said. “The best way to make a food friend in this business is to share some of your secrets. It’s not only the right thing to do, you’re going to need that help at some point too. So pay it forward.”