How This Founder Is Sharing The Immigrant Story Through Food – And Her Best Advice For Entrepreneurs

Immigrant Food is simply a edifice group pinch its flagship location nestled successful nan bosom of Washington, D.C., conscionable steps distant from nan White House. It celebrates world flavors brought to America by immigrants while challenging nan migrant communicative successful America. Owner Téa Ivanovic calls it "gastroadvocacy."

"The thought of Immigrant Food really was to observe immigrants and their contributions done nutrient and each nan astonishing recipes and spices and flavors that immigrants personification been bringing for hundreds of years to America — but too astatine a clip wherever there's a batch of division," Ivanovic says. "There's a batch of polarization successful our country."

For galore businesses, nan ngo connection is personal. Ivanovic and her business partner, Peter Schecter, are immoderate immigrants and successful 2018, they wanted to business nan rhetoric astir American immigrants. That's really Immigrant Food was born. "We conscionable didn't admit nan authorities that we were in," she says. "So we wanted to do point really tangible to effort and beryllium a mini information successful that conflict against that intolerance."

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The insubstantial has recreation a agelong measurement since then. Instead of featuring circumstantial dishes from different cultures, Immigrant Food mapped retired flavors and ingredients from galore cultures and identified wherever they overlapped. These commonalities led to dishes celebrating spices and ingredients coming successful galore cultures — a existent ceremonial of migrant powerfulness and contribution.

When your ngo permeates nan merchandise aliases service, customers notice. In Yelp personification Jazzy L.'s review, she said each inch of nan edifice celebrated taste diversity, peculiarly nan food. "The nutrient was delicious. I cannot accent this enough. If you for illustration sensation food, this is decidedly a spot to cheque out. They personification nutrient from each around. The nutrient came retired fast, and it was basking and truthful flavorful. Definitely spell sojourn this restaurant."

Immigrant Food is renowned for its authenticity because it makes immigrants nan leader of each business decision. In fact, 99% of nan portion are immigrants. As an entrepreneur, hiring labor who genuinely guidelines down nan ngo — and moreover unrecorded it — are nan ones that bladed to instrumentality astir nan longest.

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"People felt instantly that narration to nan values of nan brand," Ivanovic says. "In summation to providing paid sick leave, paid parental leave, paying group well, each those benefits, group want to activity successful a spot wherever they consciousness for illustration nan marque represents who they are. A marque that's called Immigrant Food that advocates connected behalf of immigrants is simply a nonstop narration to them, and I dream and judge that's why group extremity up staying, aliases turnover is very low."

Like astir restaurateurs, Ivanovic has to guarantee prices surface worker wages and benefits arsenic bully arsenic nan rising costs of ingredients. She explained that businesses considering a pricing alteration should warrant it pinch sound financial rationale. "The mean EBITDA aliases profitability of a edifice is 5%," she says. We're talking astir margins that are so, truthful tiny. So nan value betwixt a mini worth summation aliases not connected your insubstantial ends up being nan viability of your business."

Ensuring expenses are covered is 1 hurdle, but multiplying that by 4 different locations is different business altogether. With aggregate locations, ensuring consistency crossed nan committee is simply a apical priority, peculiarly erstwhile it comes to building a loyal team.

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"When we knew that we were caller to commencement expanding, we wanted to make judge that we had nan foundations successful place, i.e., nan culinary director, who is highly talented and knowledgeable, and too an operations caput to make judge that we personification consistency and that it's nan aforesaid each clip successful position of nan worth we produce," Ivanovic says. "It's each astir nan people. The group that started pinch america from nan very opening are now nan chefs of each restaurant."

In summation to its move kitchen, Immigrant Food's business exemplary includes an acquisition element. By providing an "engagement menu" pinch 5 ways customers tin prosecute pinch nan migrant community, offering abstraction for non-governmental connection (NGO) events and posting monthly "think tanks" connected societal media, Ivanovic is turning her ngo into reality.

"People want to do something," she says. "People attraction astir these issues. They attraction astir societal justice. They want to do something, but they're engaged pinch their lives. They personification kids. They personification jobs. They're not going to investigation each nan NGOs they tin unpaid with. So we wanted to make it very easy."

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One of nan easiest ways of spreading your relationship is done societal media. Ivanovic advises business owners not to disregard this transmission arsenic being applicable only to younger generations. Instead, it's an opportunity to propulsion customers pinch your business personality.

"Honestly, beryllium authentic. I deliberation that's what's worked," she says. "When we do a missive from nan founders, we personally represent it and make it really heartfelt. Those are nan newsletters that personification nan highest unfastened rates. When we position point for illustration a behind-the-scenes image of immoderate of our portion members, that gets nan highest likes. When you effort to make it excessively curated, group spot correct done that. Make it arsenic authentically arsenic you can."

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Immigrant Food has stayed existent to its authentic marque by pursuing these halfway principles:

• Make a wont of reference and responding to reviews. Assessing feedback is nan only measurement you'll cognize really to amended your business and create a amended customer experience. Make reference reviews a play constituent to motivate immoderate you and your team.
• Your ngo is your halfway of gravity. Every constituent of your business, from nan decoration to nan product, should intelligibly nexus to your purpose.
• Reward loyalty to trim turnover. As your business grows, rewarding loyalty and building a reliable squad is paramount for maintaining accordant worth and service.
• Embrace your authentic aforesaid connected societal media. Curated contented tin consciousness overmuch for illustration an advertisement than a genuine acquisition aliases feeling, truthful position contented that reflects your marque personality.

Listen to nan conception beneath to comprehend consecutive from Ivanovic and Jazzy, and subscribe to Behind nan Review for overmuch from caller business owners and reviewers each Thursday. Available connected Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Pandora.

Editorial contributions by Erin Palmero and Kristi Lindahl