December Update
Our December recap is short because…drum roll please…we plan to open in late January! And there’s a lot to do :) Read on for updates on construction, sourcing, and hiring.
Hiring
We’re hiring! We have open roles for butchers, a production cook, and a part-time floor associate. Visit our jobs page for more info on each role and how to apply. If you or someone you know is inspired to build a grocery store that showcases what the American food system can be, a farm-to-table food system built on local, simple, and nutrient dense food, then Radius is for you. We’d love to hear from you.
Construction
The finishes have started! Refrigeration equipment arrived and is mostly installed, tile is mounted, millwork is placed, paint has begun. In December Radius transformed from a shell to a home. Here’s the latest construction video:
We don’t have an official opening day yet, but when we do this newsletter audience will be the first to know. Stay tuned for more updates quite soon!
Sourcing
A few fun sourcing updates from December — we filmed the first two episodes for an upcoming YouTube series, and we visited four farms.
Selection Bias
In early December we filmed two episodes for Selection Bias, Radius’s YouTube series. The show explains our process to research, taste, and select the products on Radius’s shelves. The episodes will come out in late January, so stay tuned to learn what we learned.
Our first two episodes are about chicken and eggs. We started with deep research to understand what makes nutritious dense meat and eggs from high welfare chickens. Then we did tastings to see if our nutrition research matched our taste buds. For the last step we invited 12 friends do blind tastings and tell us what they liked best. It was such a fun process through research, tasting, and sharing.
Our hope is to give the “sommelier experience” to every day products. Chicken, eggs, beef, milk, pork, shrimp, apples - they all deserve the attention to detail that consumers give to wine, coffee, and chocolate. Everything we eat has depth; from different breeds and raising practices to processing and storage techniques. Selection Bias is all about exploring those depths and finding the most nutritious and delicious products to offer at Radius.
For farm visits, we made a weekend trip to Fredericksburg to visit Roam Ranch, Sandy Road Vineyards, and Lewis Wines. All three farms are innovative in their own way.
Roam Ranch
Roam Ranch is a regenerative bison ranch where the animals roam the pastures and savanna areas to consume a diverse mix of native grasses, improved grasses, and hay. If you haven’t been around bison before, it is a majestic experience. Roam Ranch hosts events throughout the year to bring consumers closer to the land and develop a greater appreciation for their food sources. Visiting Roam is well worth the trip if you live in Austin or beyond. We plan to offer Roam Ranch bison at Radius, and hopefully will collaborate on events with them too.
Sandy Road Vineyards
Sandy Road Vineyards is a small, family-owned vineyard in Texas Hill Country. Their philosophy is simple:
Great wines start in the vineyard. Reagan believes that sustainable farming practices, respect for the land, and careful attention to detail in the vineyard are the cornerstones of producing exceptional wines. The vines at Sandy Road Vineyards are grown with care and respect, following sustainable practices that promote healthy soil, vibrant vines, and balanced ecosystems…The result? Wines that are an authentic expression of the terroir, full of bright fruit flavors, vibrant acidity, and a sense of place.
We are excited to showcase several of the Sandy Road estate wines at Radius; these are some of the best wines in Texas and really do showcase Texas’s unique growing climate. We are particularly enamored with their Mouverde.
Lewis Wines
We also visited Lewis Wines outside of Johnson City, another vineyard that puts the agricultural process at the heart of their winemaking. They strive towards regenerative growing practices — using cover crops, compost, and sheep and chickens to graze the vineyards. Lewis Wines is another great example of what Texas terroir can produce, and we are excited to carry their wines at Radius.
Nava Farms
Our last farm visit in December was to Nava Farms just outside of Austin. Nava is an organic farm, orchard, and so much more. They raise bees, goats, worms, and poultry in addition to their organic fruit and vegetables. Finding Texas organic fruit has been one of our biggest challenges, and we are so excited about Nava’s holistic approach to nurturing 3000+ fruit trees that are attuned to the Central Texas climate with only organic interventions. If you visit their farm stand, ask them about bats :)
Winter Holiday Wrap
Finally, our winter holiday pick-ups went great. Big thank you to Peeler Farms, Peaceful Pork, Pure Pastures, Capra, True Bird, Minamoto, Texas French Bread, Baked from Scratch ATX, and Pie Jacked for providing us with wonderful products for our holiday menu. We didn’t have any supply chain issues, our pick-up process improved from Thanksgiving, and it was great to meet excited customers in person. Once we open in a few weeks holiday pre-orders will be even easier — think of us for Easter, Passover, July 4th, and other upcoming holidays.
