food : Development News

Walking down your neighborhood grocery aisle could have you believe your food traveled from around the world; that Mama Celeste brought her frozen pizzas straight from an Italian kitchen or that Log Cabin Syrup was tapped in a redwood cottage in the Pacific Northwest. In fact both those brands and many of your favorite foods are produced by the same local company. Pinnacle Foods, headquartered in Cherry Hill, NJ,produces everything from pickles to pretzels to cake mix, all from the same tidy corporate offices. But with its newest brand acquisition, frozen vegetable manufacturer Birds Eye Foods, Pinnacle had outgrown its current facility. This week, after a summer spent renovating a former Cherry Hill steel mill, Pinnacle dropped the curtain on its new corporate center.

"The reason for the new facility is because the company is growing and expanding," says Pinnacle VP of Corporate Affairs David Socolow. "With this acquisition, we have really reached big-company status, doing millions of transactions a year and all of those transactions are handled through this new facility. Our old facility was starting to get a little tight."

The announcement is big news for Cherry Hill, which offered business improvement and business retention grants totaling $1,102,600. This assistance was considered a major factor in Pinnacle's decision to remain and grow in South Jersey. The 57,000-sq-ft facility will allow Pinnacle to add 90 new jobs and keep an additional 130 jobs in the region. But according to Socolow, there was another reason Pinnacle kept operations close to home.

"Ultimately, we wanted to retain our existing, high-quality, well-trained workforce," says Socolow. "And also, this is a great place to attract new people. Because we are hiring to expand our company, this is a great place to attract talent in the food industry."

Source: David Socolow, Pinnacle Foods
Writer: John Steele

There is an old saying in Lebanon that one who doesn't drink coffee is in danger of losing his nationality. Lebanese residents of West Philadelphia with dual citizenship need not worry because a new caf� is bringing a taste of Lebanon to University City, a neighborhood known for fine international cuisine.

In a historic Philadelphia building that was once a printing company and, more famously, a bank, general manager Abd Ghazzawi has completed construction on Manakeesh Caf� Bakery, a modern spin on the traditional Lebanese breakfast. The caf� will offer coffee and Lebanese pastry made on site. With Saad's Halal Restaurant across the street, it will give the corner of 45th and Walnut a distinct Lebanese flavor.

"The concept is centered around the Manakeesh, which is a Lebanese flatbread sandwich," says Ghazzawi. "We have imported an oven from Lebanon to bake everything on-site, but we have a lot of Lebanese merged with American concepts. You can get the flatbread sandwich in all different flavors like an egg and cheese or a tuna melt or a pizza."

Also on the block is the Association of Islamic Charitable Projects mosque that, according to Ghazzawi, gives Manakeesh a strategic location to become a mainstay in this diverse neighborhood. With community support coming from the Enterprise Center CDC and various neighborhood associations, Ghazzawi hopes to use his location to draw in not only customers but local artists and employees to make Manakeesh a truly neighborhood experience. And of course, he'll keep the coffee and the Lebanese nationality flowing.

"We plan to support the mosque in all their efforts, from block parties to school fundraisers," says Ghazzawi. Having a fairly good-sized space definitely works to our advantage to hold community meetings here and partner with the community in many different ways."

Source: Abd Ghazzawi, Manakeesh Caf� Bakery
Writer: John Steele

When Erica Zito and her partner Mary Button moved to Fishtown five years ago, they didn't know anyone. The New Jersey natives arrived from Baltimore and began getting to know their neighbors on regular dog walks. Since those days, the pair have dreamed of owning a coffee shop. So when their dream becomes a reality this fall, they couldn't think of any name better than the name of the dog who started it all. With The Lola Bean, Zito and Button envision a dog-friendly environment and even a little corner of the shop dedicated to Lola herself.   

"She's a staffordshire-husky mix...she's a mutt basically," says Zito of the now-famous Lola. "When we moved here about five years ago, we were not familiar with the neighborhood. We spent a lot of time out and about with the dog and meeting other people. It really helped us integrate into the community and make some, what I consider to be lifelong friends. I look at Lola like a bridge that helped cross the gap between us and Fishtown at that time."

Being accepted into the Fishtown fold is not always an easy feat. But Zito and Button feel they are up to the challenge. After living in the neighborhood, getting to know the people and mining the blogs and message boards, they feel they understand what the Frankford corridor needs. Construction is complete and now the pair put the finishing touches on a community coffee shop that they hope will provide not only great coffee but a friendly, neighborhood environment that they found in the dog parks and plazas of Northeast Philadelphia five years ago.

"I think we bring something different to the neighborhood than the other coffee shops so it will be interesting to see if we can really pull in people the way we want to," says Zito. "I feel hopeful because a lot of businesses have sprung up from the families being here, have been sustaining themselves and have been welcomed by the neighborhood. I think there is a large part of Fishtown that is definitely ready for more."

Source: Erica Zito, Lola Bean
Writer: John Steele

International foods company Bertoli began in a Tuscany basement as an olive oil stand. The company now known as Progresso Soup started with two families importing Italian food to the U.S. for their families and friends. In an effort to pull Philadelphia's next foodie phenom out of a rowhouse kitchen or barbecue pit, West Philadelphia's Enterprise Center Community Development Corporation has launched Philly Food Ventures, a development program for home-based food entrepreneurs looking to take their businesses to the next level.

"When we grade applicants, we are looking for three things: managerial capability, the strength of their business idea and then we are looking for what we call entrepreneurial spirit," says Enterprise Center Managing Director Greg Heller. "People who come in with small or home-based food businesses and have the ability to run the business and take it to the next level but they don't necessarily have the know-how or the resources to get there."

Philly Food Ventures serves as a precursor to TEC's forthcoming Center for Culinary Enterprises, a 13,000 square foot food incubator with three community kitchens, urban farmland, and a training restaurant. The project is slated to transform a long-vacant grocery store at 48th and Spruce into a results-based food venture program, creating 130 new permanent jobs within its first two years and 20 new food ventures yearly.

"We are rolling this program out slowly so we can build up a client base so when our Center for Culinary Enterprises is open, we have a program and a set of clients and we can just plug and play," says Heller. "Every week, I get calls from folks who are trying to start food businesses, who have existing businesses and need assistance so this type of program is very timely."

Source: Greg Heller, The Enterprise Center
Writer: John Steele