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Business Development News

Belgian immigrant finds business success in Cincinnati

[This story was originally published in the Cincinnati Business Courier print edition on January 21, 2011. Visit the original story for more comments, thoughts and opinions on Taste of Belgium’s business growth – Randy.]

 Nearly four years ago, Belgian immigrant Jean-Francois Flechet baked and sold his first waffles at Cincinnati’s historic Findlay Market. Since then Flechet has seen his waffle business grow in sales, staff, locations, cities, offerings and exposure. Now that Taste of Belgium has opened its second Cincinnati location at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center (NURFC), Flechet has his eyes on yet even more growth.

“The food is creative and fresh,” Stephanie A. Creech, external relations manager with the NURFC exclaimed. “Additionally, we’re all looking forward to their upcoming early morning opening so that those who arrive early to the Freedom Center or who park in The Banks can enjoy a fresh cup of coffee or a latte and a waffle before starting their work day.”

The first day Taste of Belgium was at Findlay Market Flechet says he sold 50 waffles. Now, he states, they serve hundreds of people on an average Saturday and baked over 1,000 waffles this past Labor Day at the historic market.

The passionate Flechet, who can often be found offering up free samples of his popular waffles at Findlay Market, says that the early help of Jean-Robert de Cavel, Jean-Philippe Solnom, Bryan Madison and Johan Kars is what has allowed him to reach the level of success Taste of Belgium currently enjoys in Cincinnati, Dayton and Columbus.

“At first I was doing absolutely everything myself. I was making the dough at one of Jean-Robert’s restaurants and I would bring it to Findlay early in the morning and would start baking at the back of Madison’s produce store.”

Three-and-a-half years later Flechet now has close to 30 employees, one of the most prominent spaces inside Findlay Market, Taste of Belgium at the NorthStar Café inside the NURFC, locations in Columbus’ North Market and Wexner Center, and is about to sign an agreement that will give the Taste of Belgium business its first stand alone store that will offer “much more than waffles.”

Flechet says that he has signed a letter of intent for a store located inside the Gateway Quarter of Over-the-Rhine. Once open, he says that Taste of Belgium will centralize all of their production activities for the Cincinnati region there, include a bar, and affordable food offerings. But Flechet is not content with simply appeasing the masses flocking to the Gateway Quarter.

“I made vegan waffles this past National Vegan Day so that my friend Dan Korman at Park+Vine could finally have a waffle. We are also making French macaroons with the new pastry chef we have on board.”

Following his expansion in Cincinnati, the plan is to start franchising the business elsewhere in the United States.

“Cincinnati is a great place to run a test [business]; if the concept works in Cincinnati it can work anywhere,” explained Flechet. “We are also working on a new website to improve shipping, and we hope to start producing our waffle irons in the U.S. soon, but right now I’m just having a lot of fun.”

Taste of Belgium photography by UrbanCincy contributer Thadd Fiala.

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Arts & Entertainment News

2011 Winter Blues Fest takes place this weekend at the Southgate House

This weekend, the 5th annual Cincy Winter Blues Fest takes over Newport’s historic Southgate House. With shows both Friday and Saturday evening  the winter version of the blues festival promises to be another hit after selling out last year.

Due to the demand on tickets, the Cincy Blues Society has decided to make tickets available online, and at a discounted rate, ahead of the weekend for the first time. Tickets are also available in advance at Shake It Records and at the Southgate House itself, though both of these places are cash only.

The Cincy Blues Society is dedicated to raising money to keep blues music alive. This winter festival, just like the annual outdoor event that takes place on the banks of the Ohio River each summer,  is as much a fundraiser as it is a musical showcase.

There are local and national artists that will be filling all the stages at Southgate House to benefit the Blues in the Schools program which is dedicated to keeping blues music alive for the next generation. There will also be a compilation CD available benefiting the program.  To kick off each nigh,t the Blues in the Schools band will be gracing the ballroom stage at 6pm. Music is scheduled to run each night until about 12:30am which makes for quite a fun evening. It is not often that patrons get a chance to enjoy music from each of the three stages at Southgate House, so this provides a unique opportunity.

Much like its local media sponsor, 89.7 FM WNKU which recently announced some bold acquisitions to expand their reach from Dayton to Huntington, WV, the Cincy Winter Blues Fest promises to be bigger and better than ever. Get your tickets early or you may miss out on a chance to boogie down this weekend.

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News Transportation

Transit guide explains Cincinnati bus riding basics

A good map makes it easy to see what’s important. Highways don’t look the same as local roads on a good street map; similarly, major transit corridors shouldn’t look the same on a map as a bus that only runs twice a day.  Cincinnati activist Nathan Wessel created a map that highlights the most valuable and convenient Metro bus corridors – the transit equivalent of major arterial streets – and separates them from inconvenient and specialized routes.

“These frequent routes are the backbone of Cincinnati’s transit infrastructure, and understanding them is vital to riding the bus without stress,” Wessel explained. “A good transit map not only needs to represent spatial relationships, but show where and WHEN transit exists.”

Click to enlarge (PDF)

One of the biggest challenges of using transit in Cincinnati is understanding it. The new rider is presented with a complicated fare structure as well as a mess of schedules and maps so overwhelming and disjointed that many would-be riders give up. Metro is making strides towards streamlining the system, but in the interim, Wessel’s map makes understanding how the buses work a lot easier.

This map reduces the jumble to a legible system with an easily visible structure of primary, secondary, and tertiary routes that change clearly in both space and time. “The map is laid out so that people who are new to riding the bus can quickly and easily see which route they need to take, and how to do it,” Wessel said.

Long term, the goal is to have the map printed, distributed, and available potential transit riders. For example, the easy to understand transit map could be included in a welcome binder presented to incoming freshmen at UC, or handed to new out-of-town P&G employees looking for a place to live on a bus line. When printed, the map folds into an approximately 3-inch by 3-inch square with downtown routing information and some other important specifics on the back side.

Wessels is still looking to raise funds to make his idea a reality, as well as official acknowledgment from the the Southwest Ohio Regional Transit Authority, which operates Metro, and the Transit Authority of Northern Kentucky.

Categories
Development News Transportation

Five Day Design Challenge hopes to spur visionary public transit ideas

Michael Schuster Associates (MSA) is looking for a work week’s worth of revolutionary thinking. The Cincinnati-based architecture firm is sponsoring the 2011 Five Day Design Challenge, a competition calling on local and international thinkers from any discipline to generate ideas for solving real challenges facing Cincinnati and other mid-sized U.S. cities.

Dave Schuster, Visual Media Director at MSA, felt that the time was right for a deeper look at transit in Cincinnati. “We decided to focus the FIVE Competition on transportation this year because it’s very pertinent to the current social climate of the city,” Schuster explained.

“2010 saw an incredible amount of debate regarding the 3C line, the widening of I-75, the streetcar project, and more. With new development happening in The Banks, the casino and numerous projects in between, strengthening connectivity to and within the city will be essential to the long term growth of Cincinnati. Not only that, but with issues in pollution and global warming and the heavy costs associated with commuting, creating a more robust transportation network will be a great asset to the city now and in the future.”

On Feburary 3, 2011, MSA will release the full details of the project brief and all applicants will then have exactly five days to solve the problem given to them. Context information relevant to the specific challenge will be released before, but releasing details too early would spoil the fun.

This year’s design theme revolves around public transportation and infrastructure. There is sufficient evidence concluding that designing roadways to add more cars and lanes only encourages traffic congestion, which in turn encourages more sprawl, increased obesity, stress, commute times, isolationism and dependence on foreign oil.

Multi-disciplinary teams of designers are encouraged to sign up for the competition. Registration fees are only $40 and is ongoing through February 4. The jury committee consists of Vice Mayor Roxanne Qualls, Cincinnati Art Museum Director Aaron Betsky, local architect Michael Schuster, transit guru John Schneider, and Michael Moore, Director of the City of Cincinnati Transportation and Engineering Office. Together this panel will choose the top five winning designs, who will receive a total of $5,555 in prize money.

“We hope that the competition will raise an awareness and excitement about transportation problems within Cincinnati,” said Schuster. “By asking the question, ‘Can better design help public transportation?’ we will begin to see an emergence of ideas that have the problem solving potential to shape and define Cincinnati in a positive and creative way.”

Categories
Arts & Entertainment News

Cincinnati time lapse video included in Vimeo’s global ‘Cities in Minutes’ project

Last year Vimeo organized a global project entitled Cities in Minutes. The project was intended to showcase individual cities through time lapse photography. In Cincinnati, Michael Weston and Joel Beeby put together a one minute, fourteen second video that he submitted as part of the global project that now features 69 entries from around the world.

The Cincinnati time lapse video starts over the majestic Ohio River on the popular Purple People Bridge and showcases a dramatic skyline view. From there the video moves to Fountain Square and downtown Cincinnati, then to Mt. Adams for a view of the “Big Mac” Bridge, and eventually out to Mariemont.

Weston and Beeby shot the video in summer 2010, and significant construction progress of the Great American Tower at Queen City Square is visible along with a festive atmosphere on Fountain Square.