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This duo might just save Birmingham’s restaurant industry—here’s how
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To say 2020 has been a hard year for restaurants would be an understatement. A dynamic duo of Birmingham restaurant pros has teamed up on a concept that’s going to shake up food in the Magic City forever. Meet Feast—and see why it should be on your radar.
A Delicious New Concept
Feast knows that food connects people. That’s certainly true here in Birmingham, which is why its founders wanted to create a way to connect people to food on a local level.
It’s no secret that Birmingham’s food scene is second to none, and Feast is making it easier to get all that deliciousness from local restaurants onto your table. How? We’re glad you asked.
Feast is a catering connector. They team up with local restaurants to relieve the stress of managing catering orders so restaurants can focus on what they do best—creating delicious meals to be enjoyed throughout Birmingham.
They also market their partner restaurants via their website, social media and digital ad campaigns, all without taking a huge cut of the profits like other third-party catering services.
Customers get a clean, intuitive interface where they can order catering from local restaurants while skipping the massive upcharges. Restaurants get direct access to local customers while skipping the unnecessary stress.
Birmingham wins.
“Feast believes in the joy of service. We serve through connecting, promoting, and growing relationships based around food. Every plate has the potential to carry not only an incredible meal, but history, meaning and memory.”
Erin Hill, Co-Founder and Creative Director, Feast
Sold already? Sign up to join Feast today.
Meet the People Behind It
Feast was created for Birmingham restaurants by people who know them well.
Brett Ables
Brett Ables has spent his entire career working in the restaurant industry. He worked as a busboy while attending school at Auburn, and has worked pretty much every job in the industry since then.
He’s worked as the General Manager for multiple restaurants across the Greater Birmingham area, and now holds a Director of Operations position. Through his experience, Brett found a love for catering management and marketing that led to creating Feast.
“In a way, Feast was inspired because I see myself every time I see a server who is ‘in the weeds’ because they are understaffed, or a restaurant manager who is having to work way too many hours because sales are too low and labor is too high.
Catering solves these problems and helps restaurants run lower labor so that they can increase their staff. Catering helps restaurants grow their sales in so many ways.”
Brett Ables, Founder, Feast
For Brett, it’s not just about helping restaurants. It’s about supporting their kitchen staff, their servers and bartenders, their delivery drivers—all of the restaurant employees who lose their jobs every time we lose a restaurant. He describes the restaurant industry as a family who all shares the same experiences.
Erin Hill
Erin Hill was born and raised in Birmingham, and after graduating from Auburn, she tried her hand at law firms, insurance companies, sports marketing, and finally landed a job as the Creative Director for a popular Bham restaurant.
She’s always had a passion for food, so this role with Feast felt like an opportunity to channel her love for design, food and culture and do something that she’s truly passionate about—something she and Brett created from scratch.
Here’s what Erin has in mind for the future of Feast:
“I envision a massive platform where customers can place catering orders from their favorite restaurants at the click of a button. I want the creation of Feast to bring the Birmingham community together to share a meal around the same table.
We want to help restaurants, but we also want to leave our footprint in Birmingham by uplifting the community as a whole. We plan on being very involved with Birmingham non-profit organizations and we want to be able to provide meals to those less fortunate as often as we can!”
Erin Hill, Co-Founder and Creative Director, Feast
Navigating a New World
Feast was in the works before COVID-19 hit, but the pandemic fast-tracked the launch. Now, restaurants need more support than ever.
“Birmingham deserves better than an outside company that comes in charging super-high fees geared towards the restaurants that can afford them.
We believe Birmingham deserves a local company that genuinely cares about the Birmingham restaurant industry. We’ve all seen how Birmingham rallied around local restaurants this year…
We believe that Feast will be a catalyst for helping Birmingham restaurants thrive post-Covid.”
Brett Ables, Founder, Feast
We think so, too.
Supporting Bham in More Ways Than One
Feast’s commitment to supporting the Birmingham community through food doesn’t end there. They’ve recently teamed up with CareHealth, an initiative to provide free meals to health care workers, while also supporting Birmingham’s local restaurants.
Feast will be matching a donation of 250 meals from CareHealth to provide a total of 500 meals to frontline workers in Birmingham, all from Feast partner restaurants, including:
“CareHealth was doing something truly great, but they were relying on volunteers having to coordinate everything on their own. Feast will be providing CareHealth with the infrastructure needed to make the system far more efficient.”
Brett Ables, Founder, Feast
We love supporting people who support local, and we know our Bham Now readers love doing the same. Feast is ready to help Birmingham restaurants in a big way, but they need your help spreading the word.
Send this story to your favorite local restaurants and encourage them to sign up with Feast today. We’ll be sharing info when the platform goes live, and we can’t wait to bring Birmingham to our table.
Want to keep up with Feast? Give them a follow on Facebook and Instagram, and be sure to share their website with your favorite local restaurant today.
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