NYC's Mercantile Mayhem: Startup CPG, The Hot Dog King and Tidbits In Between Including Burrata Balls
A newsletter about the survival of independent businesses in New York City with a special focus on immigrant-owned, storefront retail and CPG enterprises.
A NETWORK THAT SUPPORTS EMERGING FOOD BRANDS
Individuals across the US are creating new products—jarred tomato sauces, sparkling beverages in cans, innovative snacks—to sell on supermarket shelves, virtual or physical. In business parlance this sector is called “consumer packaged goods”, shortened to CPG. The term is quality agnostic, applied to pints of small batch artisanal ice cream or Old El Paso taco kits made by General Mills—all products that sell on market shelves.
For the emerging CPG entrepreneur, getting their nascent product out of the kitchen, onto market shelves and ultimately customers’ shopping carts can seem like a Sisyphean task. Obstacles abound. They include, but are not limited to: rejection in all shapes and sizes, unexpected fees including supermarket shelving fees coupled with dwindling capital. Depending on the product, regulations that defy logic leading to mind-boggling bureaucracy. And let’s not forget about competition from the conglomerates that have very deep pockets and well established distribution channels.
Why would any entrepreneur or lover of food even think about producing a new take on hot sauce, crackers or yogurt and expect to make a profit? Because they are confident they have what it takes to succeed: an exquisite product, passion, adequate capital, awareness about the market and how to reach their potential customers and bionic determination.
Startup CPG is a network for these emerging CPG businesses, composed of people in the CPG ecosystem who share information and resources. It was launched by Daniel Scharff who has worked in and around CPGs, including stints at Mars, Deloitte, Just Egg (formerly Hampton Creek) and he was most recently the CEO of Machu Picchu, an organic yerba mate.
Fueled by the desire to help emerging brands, especially those wanting to create better food systems, Scharff has grown Startup CPG from a local San Francisco community, where he lived at the beginning of the pandemic, into a thriving network across the US. Startup CPG generates newsletters, events, parties, “Shelfie Awards” and a CPG podcast, all found on its website. Its Slack channel of 20K+ members is open to anyone: emerging or seasoned entrepreneurs, buyers, journalists, retailers, designers, brand strategists, food scientists, consultants and investors, among others with a connection to CPGs (however, no cold selling allowed). Its latest endeavor is a CPG newswire to announce CPG launches or new products, at no cost. Information on Startup CPG’s newswire can be found on the Startup CPG’s Slack, link via the website.
At a recent Startup CPG meetup in New York City, CPG-centrics mingled while eating pizza at the Smartrr office. Some entrepreneurs donned their logo emblazoned merch as they gave out samples, others just talked shop and swapped contact information. Yagiz Kilic, the founder of Drybox, which imports Turkish dried fruit, had a chance to speak with Glenn Cunningham, the buyer for a group of markets including Fairway, Gourmet Garage and ShopRite. At Scharff’s urging, several founders gave mini-pitches to the group about their product and were encouraged to ask for help with one aspect of their business.
A few other brands, some pictured above, includ plant-based dumpling Chutzpah, the French cider Aval rooted in Bretagne, Seed & Shell pistachio butter, Uncle Nick’s cauliflower pizza crust, Simply Masala Indian spice kit, Gay Beer and Pastazert’s Chocolate Ravioli. Yes, you read that right, dessert raviolis, filled with creamy fig or mint, among other flavors. A few beauty brands like Topical Skin were also present.
BURRATA BALL PIZZA NOW ON THE UPPER EAST SIDE—UNREGULAR PIZZA OPENS A NEW LOCATION
I was hired to photograph the opening of UnRegular Pizza’s new location on the Upper East Side, Lexington Ave and 79th Street, to be precise. UnRegular pizza is owned by Gabrielle Lamonaca and Paola Sinisgalli, originally from Rome, Italy. They specialize in “unregular” Roman-style pizzas, perhaps most famous for their pepperoni and burrata pizza—a ball tops each slice. I first learned about UnRegular Pizza through Miss Mona Makes Ice Cream who told me about Lamonaca and the network of people across New York City who were bartering homemade treats during the eerie, early days of the pandemic. And the tradition continues.
On opening night, the UnRegular regulars—those in-the-know—showed up to barter vegetable samosas, waffles, burek, as well as a house plant and a rap, composed on the spot, for a special slice of UnRegular’s pastrami pizza made exclusively for the new UES location. Each barter was announced by Sinisgalli’s yellow bell she rang wildly, and yelling, “Baaaaaarter!” UnRegular gave away free pizza all evening, delighting neighborhood residents getting off the bus or going for a jog, making many passersby of all ages quite giddy. Who doesn’t love free pizza?
As storefront rents and costs continue to rise, I’m always thrilled to see independent businesses expand, this is UnRegular’s fourth location in New York City.
RENT A NIGERIAN GRANDMA AT DÙNDÚ
On June 15 at 11:30am, there’s a cooking event called “Rent A Nigerian Grandma” at Dùndú, a Nigerian cafe on East 41st Street in Manhattan, owned by Chef Foluso Salami. There is good news and bad news, depending where you live and your personality type regarding groups of people. The physical cafe has limited seating, so the live cooking demo in New York City is by invitation only. However, the event will be live streamed on Dùndú’s Instagram, so no matter where you live and if you prefer solitude, can see a Nigerian grandma’s cooking techniques via Instagram live. Check Dùndú’s Instagram for updates as details emerge.
I suggest visiting Dùndú on 140 East 41st Street whether you participate in the Grandma event or not. You can try classic jollof rice, steamed bean cakes moinmoin, sweet plantains, bean fritters known as akara, or eforiro, a stew with kale, turkey and tripe, among other Nigerian treats.
HOT DOG KING AT THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART
I was just about to switch my square Substack photo of the Hot Dog King’s two carts in front of the Metropolitan Museum of Art because it’s so tiny I’m not sure it reads “Mercantile Mayhem”. If you know the Hot Dog King, aka Dan Rossi, he certainly embodies mercantile mayhem dedication, like sleeping in his van to get the highly coveted vending spot. But I will wait a week or two before switching the image because I just learned that the city has ordered him to shut down his cart for not having the appropriate vending permit, according to this New York Post article.
Rossi has a Disabled Veteran Vendor permit, which allows him to vend in that particular location. He told the Post that a Department of Health inspector “simply scraped the decal off his cart before writing him up,” resulting in Rossi unable to vend in front of the Met. Whether the incident happened exactly as Rossi describes, or not, I think the city should show a little compassion towards the 73-year-old Rossi (perhaps he just forgot to renew his permit) who has been selling hot dogs on the city streets for nearly 40 years.
I took this photo during the early days of covid when the museum was closed, yet The Hot Dog King was readying for business early in the morning for whoever walked by. This is the dedication and ever so slight “unhingedness” needed to be a successful independent business owner (myself included as a free agent, no judgement) in New York City.
Note: the video of The Hot Dog King is made by Nicholas Heller, he has an amazing, hilarious Instagram account called @newyorknico that highlights New York City’s small business owners, characters and scenes. I highly recommend it.
OPPORTUNITIES & EVENTS
Three more days to apply to the New York StartUP! 2024 Business Plan Competition, open to entrepreneurs who live and work in Manhattan, The Bronx or Staten Island. You must submit your entry form by May 31, 2024, but read all the requirements before applying. The entrepreneur winning first prize will get $15,000, second prize is $10,000 and third prize is $7,500.
Beyond SKU is accepting applications for their September 2024 program in New York City, deadline is June 15. Beyond SKU is a CPG (Consumer Packaged Goods) accelerator. For 12 weeks Beyond SKU provides each company with a curriculum and mentors, from entrepreneurs to various industry experts. A few brands that have been Beyond SKU cohorts in the past: Dam Good English Muffins, Jalapa Jar and Pinsa Love.
The Vilcek Foundation is accepting applications for Creative Promise in three categories: visual arts, curatorial work and biomedical science. Applicants must be immigrants and born on or after Jan 1, 1986. A $50,000 prize is awarded to each winner. Deadline is June 10.
Applications are open for 43North, an accelerator in Buffalo, New York, for seed stage startups. Five startups will get $1 million each, 43North gets 5% equity, but you have to be based in Buffalo or willing to relocate. Most startups accepted by 43North are in tech, like the unicorn AVC Auctions that auctions cars, but 43North has accepted other companies like Top Seedz, founded by New Zealander Rebecca Brady that makes crackers from seeds. Deadline is June 7.
SPONSORSHIP
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As always, Nina’s newsletter is full of interesting and useful information as well as so much fun to read!!!