November 2023
This post provides a glimpse of what Atomiq Condiments is about because when I printed my new business cards, I put in a link to my underdeveloped website. Last year, after I felt the pandemic was behind us, I restarted my push to get my business idea out there and look for funding to make it happen. As many entrepreneurs say, it’s much harder than one would imagine, you have to believe in yourself and what you’re doing and keep pushing.
Websites and social media aren’t my forte. While I’m aware these are key elements for a fledging business, my experience is running and managing kitchens and facilities. I’m a working chef with a great idea for a unique new business that isn’t really being done anywhere in this country. As a long time but low profile Bay Area chef my concept utilizes top Bay area ingredients to make unique, high quality, seasonal Bay Area condiments.
This science forward concept works with new and old technologies. Making and aging wine vinegar from unique wine varietals and then making vinegar based condiments and removing the water from wine grapes were the starting points. And the idea is still is built around reinventing and reworking well-known and proven traditional recipes. The plan is to make over a hundred seasonally oriented, shelf stable items throughout the year.
The idea is always being revised and updated. While wine vinegar is a mainstay, there was a thought earlier this year that it makes good sense to take advantage of all the delicious local Bay Area craft made beverages like cider, all types of beer, mead and saki. As long as the alcohol level is 10% or more, a tasty beverage will make a tasty vinegar. Vinegar is the acidic component and vacuum reduced juice/must are the sweet components.
To start I need to find a secure kitchen workshop where I can set up my equipment and make the initial product lineup. There are a good many empty buildings in the South of Market and the Mission area where this project could work. The city of San Francisco has a $25k Storefront Opportunity Program but, the challenging part of this is that you need the landlord to accept the premise of the business and agree to be part of the program.
This is a local San Francisco oriented project that takes advantage of the great Bay Area ingredients so, ideally it would be great to get the local people who live here and support San Francisco to help get this off the ground. Though, luckily with a crowdfunding campaign there is much broader reach. This would fund the workshop, supply working capital and an excellent way to introduce and do the initial market push for the Atomiq brand.
This concept has been modeled on a number of businesses because there’s nothing quite like the Atomiq concept. The first business is also food related but is completely different and that’s Modernist Cuisine in Seattle. They have a culinary lab where they test methods and then compose books that detail the mechanics of cooking. Then, they photo document what they do in an artistic way which is another entire business unto itself.
They have been an inspiration to what I’m doing because of the technical aspect of what they doing, they have a very cool culinary lab. There have been many advances in the technical aspects of cooking that change the physical characteristics of ingredients without sacrificing the taste or introducing any other ingredients into the items. This molecular approach keeps the items in a pure, natural as well as a more intense state.
Another business that has influenced me is Gegenbauer Vinegar in Vienna Austria. They stay true to taking what’s locally grown produce wise and then make cool products that exemplify the region’s uniqueness. This is exactly what the Atomiq concept is about. They use a large Schutezbach vinegar generator to make vinegar and age the vinegar in wooden wine barrels that hold the product on the rooftop where the barrels are exposed the seasons.
Two more food labs are David Chang’s Momofuko Culinary Lab in Brooklyn, they develop new products based on what they’ve learned in their restaurants. Then there’s the Noma Nordic 3.0 Food Lab in Copenhagen which has forgone their world class restaurant to be a full time food lab. They decided to make the change and work on food innovation and the development of new flavors. Both of these businesses are science oriented.
As for artisan vinegar, there are two new businesses that have gain notoriety, Acid League in Toronto and American Vinegar Works in Massachusetts. They’ve both popped up in the last few years and have enough financial backing to grow large enough to attain national distribution. One thing that sets Atomiq apart from these businesses is using specific locally made craft beverages and making a broad selection of condiments.
One final thought is that Atomiq’s business model is a lot like the way French négociant-éléveur winemakers (Latour, Jadot, Drouhin) operate, they buy grapes through long-standing contracts, they make and age the wine and then sell their wine. Most have tasting rooms where you sample their wines and a tasting room is key to the Atomiq concept. The Atomiq concept is similar to how wineries operate except, there’s a high tech kitchen.