“We definitely thought that sharing their stories would be our best way in getting those ideas out there to people. It was our way of opening the door a little for people to… get more interested in where their food comes from.”
It’s also a way of opening the door to a political debate on the value, environmental or economic, in eating local or organic. But the book (self-published and locally printed on eco-friendly paper – “How can you put out this ‘eat local’ book and have it printed in China?”) isn’t intended to hold up the “locavore” movement as a panacea for spreading carbon footprints and faltering health.
“It would be trite to say, ‘Eat locally.’ I drink coffee,” she says, her nearly empty mug before her as proof. “The point, on a greater scale, is to start changing your ideas about the way we eat. It’s not about eating local 100% of the time. The 100-mile diet” – sparked by the 2007 book of the same name – “infuriates me sometimes because it’s so unattainable, people will get frustrated and not even try. But the reality is that we have to shift our diets on so many levels.”
Mimande is carrying that philosophy into plans for another restaurant, one based on the Bacon model, but she’s giving more thought to the process this time around. Documenting Alberta’s community of niche-market producers, she says, is a way to “fine-tune the original concept.” And from an entrepreneurial perspective, anything she can do to unite the local industry and expose and promote it to eaters outside the foodie set, can only serve her interests in the future.
So will the project management courses in which she has recently enrolled. Mimande’s quick to admit the need to brush up on business skills, especially when approaching a market that sees about a quarter of new restaurants fail after their first year, and roughly 60% gone by year three.
“I’m an organized person, but it’s not all about that,” explains Mimande. “It’s managing your people, your resources, your day-to-day accounting. All of those things are huge…. I was learning as I was going along, which is almost too late sometimes.”
That’s particularly true in her case. Take the forging and managing of the relationship with her business partner. While Mimande wanted to keep Bacon a casual neighbourhood hangout and supporter of the local food economy, her partner, she says, saw an opportunity for a more upscale eatery and expansion. When the differences could not be reconciled, the result was an acrimonious split, leaving the partner with the restaurant, now rebranded, and Mimande to overcome certain naiveties.
“I believed in the partnership,” she says. “I believed in this holistic yin-yang. That’s bullshit. Businesses can’t run that way.”
That said, Mimande’s still convinced a restaurant can operate as a “social venture.” But she’s also learned how vulnerable bottom lines can be to any constraints imposed by an entrepreneur’s values. With further refinement of the old model, in time, she hopes to strike the right balance.
In the meantime, however, her attention is fixed on We Eat Together, and on the next stage of getting it into kitchens across the province, firming up a closer link between eaters and producers.
“I think I believed that once the launch happened, it was kind of over,” says Mimande. “Really, it’s just the beginning.”
Next Up is a series of profiles of emerging leaders in Alberta’s business community and public life.
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