Last night at Westland Distillery six food companies presented their business plans at the “Keep on (Food) Truckin’ Investment Forum” and vied to win dollars and recognition from the ZINO Society, a community of angel investors, entrepreneurs and connectors.Among them were several Washington-based contenders: The Brick Wood-Fired Pizza from Woodinville, Just Jacks Food Truck, LLC from Seattle, Pink’s Thai Ice Cream from Seattle (who we profiled on July 9, 2013 in Seattle Weekly) and food and beverage delivery platform Lish from Seattle. But the winners were from out of state.
Green Grass Foods, Inc., from California specializes in a dairy-free coffee creamer “Nutpods,” made from almonds and coconuts, and took the “ZINO Zenith Award”, based on a people’s choice vote for best investment opportunity. They also qualified as a fund finalist which allows them to go through the more rigorous due process of securing money from ZINO investors. Madeleine Haydon, the Founder and CEO of the company told me she’d already raised 32K on Kickstarter and has placements of her product scheduled for sale in PCC and Metropolitan markets in the first quarter of 2015. Haydon herself is lactose-intolerant, hence the idea for her product. “I’m from Seattle and I couldn’t think of a better place for my product,” she said.A second “ZINO Judges Award” (based on voting from 15 judges at the event, including Ethan Stowell, Josh Henderson and Thierry Rautureau) was given to Lezzetli Ice Cream Co. from New York, which makes Turkish-style ice cream that owner Harrison Rice describes as “chewy, dense, with a bit of a bite and half the fat of regular ice cream.” Though they do not get the guaranteed ZINO investment consideration, individual investors (from ZINO or elsewhere) may choose to invest at their personal discretion.
Sadly, our own Pink’s Thai Ice Cream didn’t win, though co-owner Brady Dibble told me before the awards were given that he chose to participate because “ZINO has the best networking over other angel share investment companies. They are good for first-time entrepreneurs who are in the early stages.” He had on hand Pink’s delicious chocolate sesame ice cream and the vegan coconut ice cream that made them famous. There were also many vintners and food vendors milling about and sharing their wares, hoping to catch the attention of chefs and investors, like Alexandria Nicole Cellars, which is based in Patterson, Washington but has a tasting room in Woodinville. Kristine Bono, a rep at the company, was blunt about their reason for being at the event. “Chef Thierry Rautureau is a huge proponent of wine in casks, and we just started a kegged wine, so we’re hoping to get him to try our Viognier and carry it in his restaurants.”
Sure enough, I bumped into Rautureau sipping Chardonnay from the winery. We chatted about the restaurant world and how quickly it’s growing in Seattle. Laughing he told me, “When people ask me what the big difference is in today’s restaurant world here I tell them ‘In 1987, there were just five of us.’” Ethan Stowell, who was also there to judge and speak on a panel, said that though “it was a possibility” it was “not likely” that he’d be investing in any of the businesses at the event. He joked that he was too busy fending off investors who want him to open more restaurants.
