The Bunker last week had to make a difficult decision about its Industrial Eats BBQ & Smokehouse.
Seven weeks after the Winkler youth ministry opened up its brand new kitchen for takeout, financial challenges have forced them to shut it down—for now.
They had hoped to use the funds from the takeout operations to complete renovations to the space at 545 Industrial Dr., which would eventually allow them to begin dine-in service.
“That was 100 per cent the goal,” said executive director Kevin Hildebrand. “We had done some projections and realized if we do X number of sales every day, then that’s what we need to break even, and if we do more than that, then we’re starting to make money for the renos.
“But right from the start, we never had enough people to break even.”’
Hildebrand said they did everything they could to get the word out, but still struggled to connect with potential customers, some of whom told him they weren’t aware Industrial Eats was even open, they couldn’t find the location (Industrial Dr. is a block off Main St., behind the Central Station Community Centre complex), or that they were “done with takeout” after having to do that through the pandemic years.
“Maybe it was a mistake on our part, opening for takeout at all,” Hildebrand mused. “We had enough to the finish the kitchen, but we didn’t have enough to finish the dining room. Maybe we should have just left it there, but that didn’t feel right either.”
Eventually, the only fiscally responsible decision was to shut it down, though Hildebrand stresses it is not the end of Industrial Eats.
“That’s an important piece that I really, really, really want the community to understand: the whole Industrial Eats dream is not dead.”
That dream included creating a restaurant that would offer a supportive, flexible work environment for marginalized youth in the community, including those who are neurodivergent or have other challenges in their lives.
“We’re not finished with that dream,” Hildebrand said. “We are just having to reassess the steps we take to get there.”
Industrial Eats will continue to offer catering, the food truck in the summer, and, new this winter, is overseeing the canteen at the Meridian Exhibition Centre.
“We’re focusing a lot on the catering right now,” Hildebrand said, “because that’s the one of the things where we know we can make money at, because we have very definitive parameters: we know how many people we will be serving, we know exactly what they want to eat, so it’s not a bunch of guessing.”
And the canteen is a great way to keep the Industrial Eats name out in the community.
“We’re going to use that place as an opportunity to still explore a little bit of the barbecue side of what we do,” Hildebrand said. “It definitely won’t be on the scale that we could do over here, but we want to be throwing little things out there, especially during Flyers games.
“We still want people to know about Industrial Eats. And even through this catering and through the concession booth, it is still 100 per cent following the dream and mission and vision of Industrial Eats, which was to be able to provide a workspace for marginalized people, to provide a workplace where we can help walk alongside people to lead them to a more positive place in life. And that’s what we’re doing.
“We have got a small crew of five casual part-time people that we are running these things with. And they’re awesome.”
Hildebrand roughly estimates they’re between $150,000 to $200,000 away from completing the dining room at Industrial Eats. If you’d like to support the project, connect with him at The Bunker or donate online at bunkerministry.com. For catering information, head there or to industrialeats.ca.
