A Breath of FRESH Air

A breath of FRESH air is coming to East Texas. This month, Tyler-based grocers, Brookshire's, launches their long-awaited and much anticipated new concept store, FRESH by Brookshire's, and BSCENE Magazine has your exclusive look inside the doors of what will be the flagship for outstanding, local food in East Texas.

A breath of fresh air is coming to East Texas. Or, maybe that should be a breath of FRESH air. This month, Tyler-based grocers, Brookshire’s, launches their long-awaited and much anticipated new concept store, FRESH by Brookshire’s, and BSCENE Magazine has your exclusive look inside the doors of what will be the flagship for outstanding fresh, local food in East Texas.

What is FRESH? Is it a gigantic farmer’s market full of locally sourced foods? Is it a nicely packaged, all-in-one grocery store where you can get Cheerios, aluminum foil and other basics? Is it a full service catering operation? A place for fresh flowers? A restaurant? The answer is yes – to all of those questions and many, many more.

“The idea began about four or five years ago at the board of directors level,” said Brookshire’s CEO Rick Rayford. “We felt that in Tyler, we really had a unique opportunity for BGC to do something with food that we had never done before. We saw a real need here to initiate a new project that included more fresh foods than we had ever done in any of our existing locations. The time was right, the location was right and now it’s a great opportunity for Tyler, Texas.”

Brookshire's began the initial research and development phase for this humongous project soon after the idea was conceived. One of the most startling things they found was the amount of customers leaving this area for larger markets for their grocery needs. “We were surprised by the amount of customers who left Tyler to find experiences with food we didn’t offer here,” said Rayford. “That’s how we envisioned it – coming up with something not exactly like what you could find in other places, but something unique to East Texas. We drew ideas from across the United States, sure, but we also had teams traveling all over the United States looking at many different types of stores that were heavily involved in food. Then, we drew up our own store based on those experiences, based on consumer research and based on the preferences we wanted to incorporate into a great food experience for the people of East Texas – something they really want and need. We think it’s a huge benefit to the people of East Texas to be able to stay local, buy local foods, buy things that people who have a passion for food need and want.”

To do that, Rayford said there was a premium placed on the people involved with the store from the word 'go.' “There are so many new things we’re doing ... we needed some real expertise. So, we went out and found people who exceeded our expectations. We found some of the most professional and competent people we’ve ever met to staff this store,” he said. “There is so much talent, passion and skill on display. It will all boil down to the people, and I’m confident we’ve done a great job to bring in the best talent to make this store successful.”

FRESH is truly the fruit of years of hard labor, research and planning. And, according to General Manager Steve Delello, “Our mission statement, in very short terms, is to share the wonders of food,” he said enthusiastically. “It’s something where we’ve done extensive market research, we’ve consulted with an advisory board, we’ve asked a lot of questions and we’re putting out there what we think East Texas wants and needs. But we also know and realize, once we open the true vote is going to happen with how folks purchase and how the product mix goes out from there. We also know we’re going into the market very flexible and listening to our customers and how they communicate with us through the purchasing of specific products.”

And as Rayford said, the personal touch of all the employees – from the bakers and butchers to the sushi chefs and pharmacists – will be what really ties all the different goals and ideas of FRESH together – people like Michael Brady, the Chef de Cuisine, and Myste Snow, the Sales and Marketing Manager.

“Our goal is to bring a consistently great product to our guests every single day,” said Brady. “Whether it’s potato salad, sweetbreads, meatloaf ... whatever it is we’re going to make sure we handle it with the utmost care and execute it consistently and very well. Our chef case will have 70-80 items in there made fresh and ready to take home; and that’s everything from chicken salad to salmon filets to beef tenderloins. We have a rotisserie and smoker, so we’ll be doing rotisserie chicken, we’ll have BBQ and pork ribs. We’ll have a salad bar – which is going to be your salad bar on steroids – and all your fresh cut vegetables. We have an authentic taco bar and a sandwich bar where the guest can interact with our partners and have a great experience with authentic foods. You can take it to go or sit down in our cafe and eat. I think we could sit 35 people inside where the coffee bar will be. When the weather is nice, guests can sit on the patio ... And on special occasions we have an outdoor kitchen where we will be able to do some fun things for special events. We want to build that communal relationship with our guests and get to know them. Then hopefully we can throw some things out there they haven’t seen before. We want to be cutting edge but not forget our roots and where we came from and where our ingredients come from.”

Guests to FRESH will have the chance to meet and speak with the chefs deciding what will be available in the store, but there are only so many of them to go around. That’s where the concept of the freshologists come in. “These individuals are like the resident culinary heroes of FRESH,” said Snow. “They’re an elite team of individuals who are always going to be there to help a guest figure out different ingredients or what to cook for dinner tonight or how to make a perfect anniversary meal .”

Among the freshologists already on staff are an individual that’s owned a restaurant before, avid bakers, someone that used to develop menus for large chain restaurants and an individual who used to grow specialty produce. “They are going to be the little culinary superheroes waiting for the perfect moment to swoop in and rescue you when you don’t know what’s for dinner that night,” Snow said. Snow said guests will be able to spot one of them will be their one-of-a-kind, lime green Converse All-Stars, their lime green polos and huge welcoming smile.

That personal interaction is one of the requirements that Brookshires has placed on FRESH from the beginning. And that commitment to personalized services – to working together with the community – has extended far beyond having someone help you choose which olive oil will work best for your dish. “I think we need to bring awareness and education to people,” Brady conveyed. “We’re going to do the best that we can to get those local ingredients, but it does take a little more work and a little more effort. We look at things locally and we look at things regionally. If I can't find the best grits in Texas and I’m going to find them Arkansas and we still look at that as well as communal, local, regional. That’s kind of stretching it, but we carry that same practice in our heads ... We’re working with what we’ve got, and I don’t mean that in a bad way. I look at it as an opportunity, as a challenge. Every day is going to get better.”

The idea of “local” doesn’t pertain only to what’s on the shelves in FRESH. From the Board of Directors down, special care was taken to keep the work local, as well – meaning a boost to the local economy.

“We’ve definitely created some new jobs,” Rayford said. “We’ve taken a few people from existing stores, but I would venture to say we have created several hundred new jobs. I think that we’re doing everything we can to promote local products from honey to turkey to cake to flowers. Any opportunities we have to deal with a local supplier of great, fresh foods, we want to partner with them. So we’re keeping the money in East Texas."

From locally-sourced ingredients to a local source for the store itself, FRESH carries the mantra to every aspect of its design and business. Tyler-based Fitzpatrick Architects worked closely with Brookshire’s to conceive, design and develop one of Tyler and East Texas’ most efficient, modern, and attractive structures.

“We were very aware that in the beginning they went to a local architecture firm to begin the process and that they could have gone to any of the big city architects,” said Brandy Ziegler, project architect for FRESH and one of the firm’s partners. “They began by looking at us locally, knowing that we were going to shop there and we were going to care about the store ... We began looking at the project site and how we could integrate the store into the natural setting … Also, we wanted to incorporate the LEED Green Building Rating System TM, which is basically a point system set up by the government to gauge new construction where, if you meet certain points, you’ll become LEED Certified. And along with Brookshire’s, we wanted to have an accountability system in place.”

As such, Brookshire’s and Fitzpatrick have remained accountable to their goals and there are almost too many LEED points to list. However a brief overview is more than enough to impress anyone environmentally conscious. A substantial amount of the materials used in construction were found within a 500-mile regional radius. The roof of the building is set up to prevent significant heat gain, cutting back immensely on energy consumption. Also, the roof acts as a water collection unit that feeds a cistern which supplements the irrigation system. The exposed wood used on the exterior of the store is FSC certified, meaning it was obtained from a sustainable forest. The store is lit mostly by natural light – through windows and skylights. Also, more attention was paid to the lighting outside the store.

“One of the points that we’re going for is light pollution reduction,” Ziegler added. “The light pollution point basically says that we don’t want to pollute our neighbors with light, especially residences … The major light source, the main parking lot, is located away from the neighbors and, in turn, makes the ‘back’ the ‘front.’ All the parking lot and site lighting is LED, which also reduces light pollution because it doesn’t spill over like typical site lighting does … However my favorite LEED point and sustainable effort that Brookshire’s has put into practice on the project is that normally, during a construction project of about this size, about 75 percent of construction waste goes directly into a landfill. Brookshire’s has recycled over 95 percent of their construction waste; which gives them three potential points. It’s a huge thing, actually.”

Ziegler also mentioned that so many of the design concepts and other LEED points will go unseen or unnoticed by customers and even most FRESH employees. “It’ even that much more of a statement about the kind of integrity present in this project and in the whole organization.”

Anyone passing by FRESH will be able to see the beautiful design of the building, as well as the landscaping – which will be mostly xerascape (landscaping using little or no water, and few plants). Everything about FRESH is geared toward locally sourced employees and products, freshly prepared materials and active relationship with the community around it. Even the design of the facility is set up to promote interactivity.

“Between walking up to the store and entering it there was kind of this idea that you would be ‘active’ between the two,” Ziegler explained. “There’s this new idea in architecture called ‘active design’ where you’re basically designing spaces for people to be active – even if it means participating or integrating with the building. For instance, the east stairway that leads up to the patio, all of that front parking is going to be labeled fuel-efficient vehicle parking (another LEED point). But it’s kind of that idea of fuel efficiency, riding your bike or having excellent pedestrian access. [It’s about] physically enjoying climbing the stairs, and not making a narrow staircase. The design is interesting: the planes are shifting back and forth, it’s integrated with the landscape."

Finally, the main feature – and what seems to be the underlying principle of most of what FRESH has set out to accomplish – is the simplicity of design. With the food, the ideas are simple: find local, high-quality items and make them available. The concept is simple too: we have a need, let’s fill it in the most efficient and customer-pleasing way possible. It’s even illustrated in the building itself: “What we’re all used to seeing in retail is a kind of [sensory] overload,” Ziegler said. “...There’s not a clarity to your shopping experience ... We wanted to step back and clean that whole idea up, and that was something Brookshire’s wanted to do from the beginning, as well. Where there are simple, clean lines; simple signage; there doesn’t have to be this over-the-top kind of chaos when you walk into a store. A lot of the comments we’ve had when people have visited, even now, are ‘There’s something different about it’ when you walk through, the average consumer may not be able to put their finger on it, but something is different.”

“We wanted to let the products speak for themselves,” Fitzpatrick added. “We’ve really tried to be simple and create a backdrop to let Brookshire’s display their products and produce and prepared foods and not take anything away from it. We want to give them a stage to do that and keep the building very simple.”

For patrons of FRESH, “simple” is a concept for which they’ll be quite thankful when they see all that is in store for them. “We want folks to see ingredients that they have not had an opportunity to work with before. Now, they can put those things together with the advice and interaction from the freshologists or the chefs, some of the many people in the store who have expertise in the culinary arts,” Delello said. “We encourage that engagement, that’s part of what’s going to distinguish us and our position in the market. We’re trying to get folks to feel comfortable with these ingredients. There’s kind of a mystery or mystique out there where they see food shows and they think ‘Wow, I could never make a dish look that way’ or ‘I could never prepare that food, that’s too difficult.’ We take the mystery out of it; take away the veil so to speak, and say ‘Hey, you guys can really do this.’”

And “simple” certainly doesn’t mean limited. Sure, you won’t be able to get a full selection of motor oils or umbrellas, but there will be an almost ridiculous amount of never-before-seen products in this area. “Besides that we’re a food destination,” Delello added, “We like to point out some specific features that I feel are unique to this area. For instance, we’ll have a wellness center, and a partner to help manage it and make choices in that department. We’ll have an extensive gluten-free section in grocery, dairy and frozen [foods]. We’ll be carrying bulk foods where folks will be able to get portions of spices and flours of ingredients and teas and coffees those kinds of things, enabling them to buy just what they need. We also want to let folks know that we are in the specialty market. We carry items like Wagyu beef, and prime beef that they have not been able to get in the past, as well as products in-season like mangosteen and guanabana, the new super fruits ... Just in our wellness area alone we’re looking at carrying close to 10,000 items that we have not previously carried as a company. Besides what we normally carry, through our warehouse, 40 percent of our center store will be specialty items. We’ll have a 60-40 ratio of our everyday items that you’ll see in a traditional grocery store. I think its safe to say that there will be tens of thousands of items that we will see in FRESH that are not in normal grocery stores.

“Also the food service departments are totally unique to this market area,” Delello continued. “We’re incredibly excited about the coffee and gelato bar, the taco and sandwich counters, the bulk olives and in particular the chef-prepared foods. We’re going to have 70-80 chef prepared items that folks are going to be able to buy (pre-cooked), take home with heating instructions and feed their family a meal that was chef-prepared. I just think that’s so valuable, especially to working families and those that don’t have the time to spend all afternoon in the kitchen.” And those purchases may be the most basic level of interaction between staff and customers. Delello reiterated, “I think it’s the interaction between the consumer and the team of experts in the culinary arts group that really sets FRESH apart. [That] is really one of the things we want to hang our hats on.”

FRESH is truly the fruit of years of intensive labor. It’s a physical manifestation of years of research, ideas, concepts, and the overarching mission statement to bring the wonders of food to East Texans. It’s also the single largest investment Brookshire’s has ever made in a retail store. For Brad Brookshire, it’s more than just a new business venture – it’s the continuation of a legacy passed on to him and one that seeks to provide sustenance for the men, women and children of East Texas – his home.

“I think it’s critically important to keep that local tie,” Brookshire said. “We need to support this community and buy locally as much as we possibly can. That is part of the theme of the store and the concept – organic, natural, local … The potential is what’s exciting for us. This is a store we could take to Oklahoma City or Little Rock or any number of places that, if it is successful, we could expand the horizons of where we normally operate. And that’s not to mention Longview or Shreveport or Monroe, Louisiana … So, we don’t need to hit just a single. We need to hit a triple or a home run with it. The first one is critical, and there is a lot riding on this store, for sure.”

Even with the pressure mounting, Brookshire is confident people will truly enjoy the benefits of what FRESH is offering. “It’s a unique shopping and food experience,” he said.

Luckily for all of us, the wait is over. FRESH’s doors are open and we’re all enjoying the best of what’s around. For the teams of people working on the cheese selections, to the men and women pouring concrete, and for all the foodies looking to get their hands on some amazing ingredients – the expectations have been at a fever pitch.

“The anticipation for this store has been unlike anything I’ve ever witnessed in my career,” marveled Rayford. “I have yet to go anywhere in this town or this region where I am not asked ‘When is the store opening? What’s it going to be like? What all will you have?’ And the list goes on and on. I think there is a real, genuine excitement and a curiosity from the people of East Texas who really want a unique food experience … And, they’ll get it.”