Marcel Brady runs probably the greatest kitchens you’ve by no means seen.
It could be the most well liked Wednesday evening kitchen on the West Aspect.
The headscratching reality is nobody can put their eyes on a spot referred to as Eat Wit Yo Eyez. However loads of individuals feast on the kitchen’s Wednesday evening particular: $1 wings.
Eat Wit Yo Eyez is a ghost kitchen at Lombrano Meals Corridor, a restaurant co-op. Some prospects order on-line or get their meals delivered via UberEats, GrubHub or DoorDash.
Others place orders contained in the meals corridor on a touchscreen kiosk. However nobody is allowed to peek or enter behind a wall the place 21 kitchens and a drink station function.
Including to the thriller: Lombrano Meals Corridor sits in a hard-to-find spot off a small highway in an industrial advanced close to Interstate 10 and North Brazos Road.
The seclusion however, Eat Wit Yo Eyez cooks up a reasonably good crowd.
“Wednesday is our busiest evening of the week,” Brady mentioned. “It was our slowest. We requested ourselves, ‘What can we do to show this round?’ So we began promoting wings for a greenback.”
One greenback wings may entice a crowd. However can a enterprise flip a revenue on bargain-priced hen?
“We don’t lose cash,” Brady mentioned. “Individuals say, ‘$1 wings? Okay, we’ll get 20 or 40 of them.’ Individuals find yourself shopping for extra. We’d must do extra work that day to fulfill our revenue aim as a result of individuals order greater than they usually would.”
Brady and his spouse Teresa Brady share house with kitchens that serve quite a lot of fare, amongst them Noods Mexican-Asian Fusion, Taco Road, Hawaiian Bros, Marcos Pizza, Blissful Thai Delicacies and Mad Burgers.
“All of us look out for one another,” Marcel mentioned. “If I want one thing, I can ask one other kitchen, and in the event that they want one thing, they’ll ask us. It really works out.”
Marcel developed his chops at Auguste Escoffier Faculty of Culinary Arts in Boulder, Colorado. He and Teresa constructed a following promoting wings and seafood from a truck at since-closed Bentley’s Bar on Broadway. Clients loved the cajun flavors. Marcel prided himself on the plating.
Presentation, he says, is essential. The meals has to look good. Therefore the title, Eat Wit Yo Eyez.
Two years in the past, a fellow chef invited the Bradys to share house at Lombrano Meals Corridor. The excellent news was transferring into a bigger kitchen. The odd information was putting orders in to-go luggage and setting them inside a locker for pickup.
How might prospects eat with their eyes in the event that they couldn’t see the meals?
Regulars adopted the Bradys from Bentley’s to Lombrano Meals Corridor. Marcel posted images and artistic movies on social media. New prospects took to the wings and seafood. Enterprise grew.
“Persons are loving the flavors, the methods we use to make the meals scrumptious and positively the presentation,” mentioned Teresa, the sous chef. “It’s one thing they don’t usually have right here in San Antonio.”
To advertise Eat Wit Yo Eyez, Marcel creates movies for the kitchen’s 24,000-plus followers on TikTok, Fb and Instagram.
In a single video, he delivers an order of wings to employees on high-rise scaffolding overlooking downtown. In one other, he palms steaming wings to an officer at an airport safety checkpoint. In a 3rd, a patrolman pulls him over solely to be given a field of scorching wings.
“Let you know what,” the officer says, “I’m gonna provide you with a warning. Hit that blinker subsequent time.”
A big measure of creativity and hustle is required to market an invisible kitchen.
“I do a number of social media,” Marcel mentioned. “We go to occasions and move out flyers. We do a number of strolling to push and market our model.”
Lombrano Meals Corridor has 4 picnic tables. On a current Wednesday, solely two had been occupied.
A pair ate a platter of wings at one desk. A household of 5 ate hen at one other. Most prospects grabbed their meals to go. The most well-liked order? The $1 wings.
“I’m an accredited chef,” Brady mentioned. “I care about recipes and sauces, each element all the way down to the batter on our hen and fish and the way they’re seasoned. We attempt to be sure you can’t get anything prefer it within the metropolis.”
