From The Ground Up Danielle Berg

“We are trying to change the way that people can get access to fresh, healthy food.”

Luke Saunders is the founder of Farmer’s Fridge, the omni channel fresh food business. He likes to call himself a ‘small business entrepreneur’ - in college, he founded a bike rental company, sold it when he graduated and then went on to work at a small family business making industrial grease lubricants in Queens. After his left his gig at the industrial grease company, he took a job as a traveling sales man for a metal finishing company, which is what inspired his concept for this Farmer’s Fridge. As a traveling sales man, Luke was driving over 1,000 miles a week across four states and during his constant travels, realized he couldn’t get anything he wanted to eat on the road. Everything was fast food. He wondered - why isn’t there more fresh grab and go meals outside of these more dense urban locations? Luke quickly recognized the supply chain problem - food manufacturers can make food very safely and efficiently but getting it from factory to gas station could take six months because of the way supply chain works.

Once Luke realized that he could connect directly to customers and create his own distribution model, then he could solve the problem of getting fresh healthy food to more people. With that, Farmer’s Fridge was born. Prior to the pandemic, Farmer’s Fridge was really all about fridges (what?!). Yes, fridges. Farmer’s Fridges makes fresh, delicious food at a central commissary kitchen then put that food in their own refridgerated trucks and then take that food to fancy “vending machines” that they call fridges. The fridges are in airports, universities, office buildings and more across the Midwest and East Coast. The whole purpose was to try and change the way that people can get access to fresh, healthy food. A vending machine is convenient, it can go places restaurants can’t go and it would allow them to be really efficient about getting food to people so it could be less expensive.

Once COVID hit, Farmer’s Fridge launched a DTC business where they leverage that same infrastructure around production and distribution of food but they drop it at your house (yes please)! In this episode, we cover how Luke came up with the idea of fresh food vending machines, how his mission has driven this business, launching a new arm of Farmer’s Fridge and of course, the types of dishes they offer. Tune in and follow @farmersfridge on Instagram!

Emily Griffith shares her story of starting and building America’s sprouted buckwheat brand - Lil Bucks. While living in Australia, Emily had a life changing açaí bowl that inspired her to build a brand of her own. The bowl had sprouted buckwheat seeds as a replacement to granola that's usually sprinkled on top - it was not too sweet, had the perfect crunch and soon became her new obsession. Once Emily noticed there were no dedicated sprouted buckwheat brands here in the U.S., she decided to launch Lil Bucks. Once she moved back to Chicago after living in Australia, she took on freelance gigs to bootstrap her business. Emily went from selling at local farmers markets to selling in major retail stores across the U.S.

In this episode, Emily chats with host Danielle about buckwheat production, bootstrapping a business, the realities of being a food entrepreneur and fulfilling her vision of creating a national, natural health brand. Tune in and follow @lovelilbucks on Instagram and use code fromthegrounduppod on www.lovelilbucks.com for 20% off your first purchase!

Vanessa Price first got into wine in Louisville, Kentucky, where she was born and raised. She originally moved to New York to go to school for theater and film but shortly after, moved back home to Louisville to get her Bachelor’s degree. During her off days from school on the weekends, Vanessa worked at a winery in downtown Louisville and that’s where she fell in love with the culture of wine.
Since then, Vanessa has worked on all sides of the industry - she has spent 15 years in the wine industry as a trained sommelier, she authored New York magazine’s hit “Wine Pairing of the Week,” worked on the import and distribution side and founded The Vinum Collective, an all-things wine platform from education to e-commerce. Most recently, Vanessa released her debut book, Big Macs and Burgundy: Wine Pairings for the Real World and she is currently working on building a new restaurant and boutique hotel in Montauk, New York called Mavericks.
In this episode, we talk all about Vanessa’s approach to the world of wine, how she got into wine in Louisville Kentucky, writing her first book and we even discuss why and how Cheetos and Sancerre make the perfect pair. Tune in and be sure to follow Vanessa Price on Instagram @vanessalenoreprice and check out her new book at www.bigmacsandburgundy.com.

Chef Ken Addington is a veteran of some of New York City’s most renowned restaurant kitchens including the Ace Hotel, Picholine, Patroon and Town restaurant in the Chambers Hotel, which he opened with chef Geoffrey Zakarian, receiving three stars from The New York Times. At Strangeways, which Addington opened with his partner, Jamie, during the COVID-19 pandemic as a safe and welcoming outdoor dining experience, he serves an eclectic menu of rustic American dishes inspired by his travels abroad and the diverse food landscape of New York City.

In this episode, we discuss how an opportunity at the age of 16 led him to his long career path in the culinary world, living and working in New York during some of the most difficult times and opening up a new restaurant mid-pandemic in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Tune in and follow @kenaddington and @strangeways_bk on Instagram.

Bridget Firtle, born and raised in the Rockaway Beach neighborhood of Queens, began her career on Wall Street at a hedge fund as a consumer goods investor with a focus in global alcoholic beverage companies. In 2012, she saw an opportunity to join the renaissance occurring in American distilling and founded Owney’s Rum – New York City's only rum distillery. Within five years of the launch, Bridget formed a strategic partnership with international spirits company Proximo Spirits, and in early 2020 she successfully sold the company to launch Rockaway.

Rockaway is a new sparkling beverage that embodies the creative, unfaltering energy of New York City and offers functional benefits from powerful plants and adaptogenic herbs. In this episode, we discuss the transition from investing on Wall Street to building a rum distillery from scratch, how she created and sold a business in five years and how she made the transition from spirits to the non-alcoholic space and launched her second company, Rockaway. 

“Those were some of my best memories of my childhood... sitting around the table with my family."

Berty Richter is the Executive Chef and Owner of TLV in Austin, Texas - a restaurant inspired by the streets of Israel. Berty was born and raised in Israel to an American-Hungarian father and a Turkish mother where food was at the center of their everyday life. There was always somebody cooking in the kitchen and from a young age, he was exposed to a lot of great food. Berty’s family would host large, 12-hour feasts on Saturdays where they sit around the table and enjoy drinks and delicious food made by Berty’s mother and grandmother. This is how Berty fell in love with food and cooking.

Starting at the age of 12, Berty took summer positions in different kitchens across Israel. When he was 18, he joined the mandatory military service (Israeli Defense Force) where he found himself volunteering to cook on the weekends while some of the cooks were away. After his service during his time traveling the United States, he decided that he was going to pursue his true passion as his career, which was cooking. In this episode, Berty chats with host Danielle about how his family feasts shaped who he is as a chef, working in different kitchens across New York City for 15 years, moving to Austin and opening his food truck Hummus Among Us and how his food truck provided him with the opportunity to open up a restaurant of his own - TLV.