Boosting the Magic City food scene

Business people typically discover winning ideas for new products or services by finding and filling unmet needs.

That’s the case with Haden Smith, 26, a Birmingham food industry entrepreneur.

While working on food trucks, Smith said he learned first-hand there wasn’t enough commissary kitchen space in Birmingham. There’s a facility in Hoover called Chef’s Workshop, but Smith still saw what he calls “a glaring need” to open a commissary in the city, which he said is a better location for some users.

“I felt if there was space available in Birmingham, I could service the city’s quickly growing food scene, as well as other metro area suburbs,” he said.

That idea came to fruition in a new facility called The Annex, a culinary incubator where Smith, who serves as executive director, offers commercial kitchen rental space and other services to budding caterers, restaurateurs and food-truck operators.

The Annex had a soft opening in July in the Tillman Levenson Annex building at 113 12th St. N., a wedge-shaped, 9,800-square-foot brick structure built in 1960 to serve the old Tillman Levenson department store.

“I’m excited about opening in the city’s entrepreneurial district,” Smith said in a REV Birmingham news release this summer. And he told Iron City Ink that facilities such as The Annex “offer small food businesses a lower barrier of entry to prove their concept.”

At press time, The Annex had one shared-use kitchen in operation while Smith worked to develop more than 7,000 square feet of warehouse into an additional, larger shared-use kitchen plus two smaller kitchens. Those spaces should be finished by the end of 2018, according to Smith.

Originally from Louisiana, Smith grew up in Birmingham, earned his bachelor’s degree in restaurant management from the University of Alabama and worked on the Dreamcakes Bakery and Shindigs food trucks.

Smith and a partner, Ben Olivier, pitched their own food truck concept — the Cajun-themed Bayou Bros — at the 2017 REV Big Pitch and were among the 10 finalists in the annual business-plan competition.

The two men wanted to find a commissary space for their food truck, according to Smith. “But then we met all these other people who were looking for the exact same thing we were,” he said.

That gave Smith the idea for The Annex, and he worked with REV and the commercial real estate firm Redmont Group to create a business plan. The facility is designed to help food start-ups get around the high cost of commercial real estate while starting their operations.

“A lot of these people don’t necessarily need a commercial lease … when they don’t even necessarily need a storefront,” Smith said.

Smith also helps entrepreneurs by “streamlining kitchen services, like getting linens, getting chemicals [and] pest control services,” he said. “You pay me, and you come in here, and it’s done.”

Six businesses were set to move into the existing shared kitchen in September, with perhaps two to four more by October, according to Smith. The businesses include Katie’s Plates, Emily’s Heirloom Pound Cakes and a food truck called The All Good.

The Annex will also offer a food truck incubation program, using a vehicle the facility purchased, according to Smith.

Bayou Bros will be the first business to incubate out of The Annex rental truck, Smith said.

There will also be a pop-up dinner series and a co-working space with 14 desks.

And Smith believes The Annex — by lowering the barrier of entry for more operators — can possibly bump the already thriving Birmingham food scene up another notch.

“When small businesses are given spaces to flourish, our city seems to have made the most of these spaces and the opportunities they provide,” he said.

He cited the success of shared spaces such as Innovation Depot, MAKEbhm and The Forge, a coworking facility at The Pizitz. 

Smith also believes the city of Birmingham and Jefferson County should drastically simplify and streamline the process through which entrepreneurs obtain the licenses and permits they need to operate their businesses.

“We need to cut down on the time that it takes to get into business here,” he said.

For more information about The Annex, located at 113 12th St. N., call 777-5168 or go to theannexbham.com.