Can Kimbal Musk Do For "Urban Casual" What His Brother Did For Electric Cars?
It's obvious that Kimbal Musk, brother of Tesla Motors' Elon Musk, is very serious about sustainability, the locavore movement and "real food," which he describes as "food we trust to nourish our bodies, our farmers and our community."
Kimbal Musk, who serves on the boards of Tesla Motors and SpaceX, opened the first location of his chain of restaurants, the Kitchen, in Boulder in 2004. Later, he established the Kitchen Community, a nonprofit that aims to improve children's eating habits. He also cofounded Square Roots, the network of vertical hydroponic farms in shipping containers in the middle of Brooklyn.
Since its inception, the Kitchen has grown to several locations in Colorado and outward to Chicago and Memphis. In a Medium article last month, Musk wrote that although the success of the Kitchen was great, he found that most of his clientele was "affluent." He wants everyone to have access to what he calls "real food," so in 2011 he opened Next Door, an affordable, locally sourced fast-casual restaurant. The chain has expanded to three locations in Colorado, with another one on the way in that state, as well as one in Memphis. The South African native's next venture is to open 50 Next Door locations in America's heartland by 2020. That's 50 locations in three years. He's also calling Next Door a pioneer for "Urban Casual" restaurants.
"Urban Casual embraces the future of Postmates, UberEats and other food delivery services so that you can have incredible real food delivered to your home with the touch of a button," he writes.
Musk is also an editor for the Food Is the New Internet page on Medium.