CLEVELAND, Ohio – What the trio of owners of Cleveland kitchen Some time ago it was discovered that sauerkraut is not just for brats.
When the company started, Drew Anderson said they thought the market was going to be a little tight.
“We thought most of our customers went for brats, burgers – traditional, with pork chops or something like that. It’s a great use of our product, ”he said. “But where it really started to shine was that people ate it every day. And the speed and usage changed. People ate spicy sauerkraut with eggs in the morning. At lunchtime they eat our beetroot sauerkraut with rocket salad and walnuts and chevre. And for dinner there is a pork chop with roasted garlic sauerkraut for dinner. People came back every week. “
You still come back.
That appetite has resulted in a huge surge in business for the company, which recently landed at # 341 inc.com’s list of the 5,000 fastest growing private companies. Additional products and a widespread sales footprint add up to a lot of cabbage that hits home.
Make this fermented cabbage.
The company’s braintrust is formed by a family triumvirate: Drew Anderson, chief executive officer; his brother Mac Anderson, who is in charge of sales; and her brother-in-law Luke Visnic, Chief Operating Officer. Her life was closely tied to food and a great deal of Cleveland pride.
Cleveland Kitchen started out as a Cleveland herb.
The brothers grew up in Shaker Heights. Her mother, a cook and biologist, started popular farmers markets – Shaker Square, Crocker Park, North Union. The brothers and their sister were obliged to work at a young age and quickly immersed themselves in the world of the farm on the table.
“We all hauled potatoes, set up market tents, grew up in this world Saturday mornings, child labor laws aside, and helped run the markets,” said Drew.
After graduating from Cleveland State, Drew worked in banking in Virginia.
“I couldn’t get any Midwestern dishes – pierogis, sauerkraut, Kielbasa – the very stuff you grow up with in Cleveland and the Midwest. So I started fermenting my own sauerkraut, hand-cranked kielbasa and Italian sausage, all that stuff. I’m not good at making pierogi, but I love a good pierogi. “
Another banking job brought him back to Cleveland.
They met Visnic, a professional architect who was with her older sister. One evening Visnic brought out homemade sauerkraut over a beer.
“Naturally fermented, tasty, crispy,” said Drew. “He and I ate it from the mason jar and we had the idea, ‘Hey, this is a really good product, that’s how it should be done.’ “
Cleveland Kitchen was founded in 2014.
Texture and taste contrasted strongly with the “pulpy” mass-produced goods, they thought. They began studying fermented foods, and their research showed that they were growing in popularity outside of the United States.
What they saw was what Drew called a “pipeline”. They saw the demand in the market and were convinced of their production. And the Culinary Launch Kitchen, which was emerging in Cleveland at the time, provided a place to make it.
On three to four nights a week, from 7 p.m. until late at night, they made sauerkraut after their job and carried it to farmers’ markets on weekends.
A chance meeting – of all places on the muni-Lot – turned out to be a coincidence. They met a couple who loved their spicy sauerkraut.
“We just went to people who were grilling on the muni site and said, ‘Would you like some sauerkraut with it? This is our brand. ‘ “
A doctor they’d met started pounding them with questions, “What are you doing, what’s the business plan?” Drew caught himself pitching, and then came the best question of all:
“How much money can I deposit?”
Cleveland Kitchen owners see growth potential in their kimchi.
That helped them to grow with their own large kitchen in 2015 and they quit their main jobs.
“There were some tough times in there,” said Drew. The Andersons’ sister supported Luke. Drew cashed in savings. Mac lived at home to save money and work as a bartender at night.
All the while their sales expanded.
“This is a really delicious, crispy, fresh product, and we’ve redefined sauerkraut,” said Drew. “And it’s really good for you too. … it’s good for the intestines. “
Now they’re available at major retailers, from Heinen’s to the Giant Eagle Market District, from Kroger to Walmart and beyond.
“We’re the fastest-selling fermented food brand in the country and we’re growing like crazy,” said Drew.
Last year during Covid they launched a fermented dressing with fermented vegetables as a base. Kimchi products were launched this year and are available in around 5,000 stores.
Cleveland Kitchen has 40 employees.
“This is like a sleepy category and we came in and woke them up, woke them up, we showed them something that really comes from our hearts,” he said. “It’s from the Midwest, it’s from Ohio, it’s from Cleveland.”
He added, “We are very proud to put Cleveland on the label.”
That hometown pride and strong market growth is borne out by our recent Inc. listing. Inc. 5000 tracks America’s fastest growing private companies based on their sales growth rate over the past three years. Cleveland Kitchen sales increased 1,384% during that period.
The seven-year-old company was formerly called Cleveland Kraut, but sauerkraut is just a piece of the fermented cake, so to speak. So they renamed and expanded. Today Cleveland Kitchen employs 40 people in 3,500 square feet in a manufacturing building on Carnegie Avenue. And by the end of the year, Cleveland Kitchen appears to be the largest kimchi maker in the country, Drew said.
“We learned early on, ‘Hey, we have to do this across the country to really build brand awareness and spread the word,'” he said.
“We sell all over the country, we are very proud to have our hometown at the top,” he said. “We’ll do that up here.”
He added, “Wherever we go, people may have a feel for Cleveland or another, but we say, ‘We’re the jewel of the Midwest.’ We say that to everyone. People come and visit us; We take them through the city. You are blown away. We are so happy that we are based here. “
I am online cleveland.com‘s Life and Culture Team and deal with topics related to food, beer, wine and sports. If you want to see my stories here is a directory on cleveland.com. Bill Wills of WTAM-1100 and I usually talk about food and drink at 8:20 a.m. Thursday morning. And tune in on Wednesdays at 7:05 am for “Beer with Bona and much, much more” with Munch Bishop at 1.50 pm The Gambler. Twitter: @ mbona30.
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