Wed
May 8 2013
07:29 pm
Reinventing Just Ripe
By: michael kaplan

Just Ripe, my favorite eatery in Knoxville, has been closed for two weeks for "reinvention," and I'm afraid they might reinvent themselves out of business. I've had breakfast with friends at JR every Saturday morning for nearly two years and have watched it develop a loyal customer base of regulars who dine there almost every day. The menu of made-to-order biscuits, burritos, soups and sandwiches was near-perfect for taste, value and healthy goodness, all served up by an efficient staff of really nice people. Read the glowing reviews on urbanspoon

JR had a few problems, though. Half the real estate was taken up by a rack of local and regional groceries that were wonderful, but expensive; they seemed more like gift items than daily staples. The indoor seating at comfortable wood tables accommodated only 14 people, limiting the sales-to-rent ratio. And the cash register, one of those computerized gizmos from hell, was painfully slow, generating lines just to pay.



continued...

There was also the wi-fi problem, where a few patrons would sit for hours on their laptops not ordering anything beyond a single cup of coffee. The standard solution is to time out the wi-fi after, say, 30 minutes, requiring a purchase for renewal. Or, eliminate wi-fi entirely.

So now, with the reinvention, the seating has been been halved, the wood tables replaced by metal ones, and the freshly prepared menu items are mostly gone, replaced by one "hot & ready" item for breakfast and one for lunch, some baked goods (including a beautiful $5 slice of strawberry-rhubarb pie), quiche, and a variety of healthy drinks. The carafe of fair-trade coffee (best in town) remains.

Hope it works ...

Topics:
bizgrrl's picture

It's tough figuring out how

Submitted by bizgrrl on Thu, 2013/05/09 - 4:50am.

It's tough figuring out how to survive in the retail/restaurant business.

Amos's picture

Grocery or Eatery?

Submitted by Amos (not verified) on Thu, 2013/05/09 - 9:38am.
(in reply to bizgrrl)

I loved the food at JustRipe but almost never bought groceries there. Every business model needs tweaking, and I am confident Kristen and Charlotte looked at what works and what needed changing and tried to correct it. My concern is that I will never need to go there because Three Rivers meets my grocery needs (I wanted a healthy eatery downtown, not a grocery) and other customers may feel the same way.

I cannot help thinking that a good busniess meets its customers where they are or lures them in, and that JustRipe is more committed to a business vision than to serving the needs of their customers.

I hope I am wrong.

trobinson's picture

I came for the coffee (the

Submitted by trobinson on Thu, 2013/05/09 - 7:16am.

I came for the coffee (the last week without 3 bears coffee was tough) but we started buying some of the artisanal food and started buying regularly. Going to miss the variety. The retail food business is tough, hope the change helps.

Teresinha 's picture

Just Ripe

Submitted by Teresinha (not verified) on Wed, 2013/05/15 - 8:39am.

I support them. We have a lack of good restaurants in knoxville, w quality. The service, the staff, the quality ot the food and ingredients, the products are just amazing! It s all the combination I want when I go out to eat.

michael kaplan's picture

update

Submitted by michael kaplan on Wed, 2013/05/15 - 2:29pm.

A friend and I visited Just Ripe last Saturday at 10 am, hoping to get some breakfast before our excursion through the Farmer's Market. The place has been physically revamped, with the 14 indoor seating places replaced by six. Three of the old tables have been crowded behind a partition with a sign "reserved for groups." Most of the former dining area now contains a wood table featuring Flour Head baked goods. (Even Mahasti would admit this is a poor use of prime downtown rental space.)

JR is now closed on Sunday and Monday, which doesn't seem a good idea for what proposes to be - at least in part - a grocery.

On to the food. I ordered the maple bacon biscuit with ginger marmelade, and my friend tried the strawberry coffee cake. Both were excellent, but underwhelming as breakfast. There was an offering of baked eggs ranchero and a veggie tart (in the $6 - $7 range) but the idea of warming a pre-cooked dish in a microwave was not my idea of breakfast. The scones looked good, but hardly a substitute for those made-to-order breakfast biscuits or burritos that JR featured in its former life.

So, I'm not convinced that the "reinvention," as the owners describe it, will save Just Ripe. They call it "a work in progress" and I do hope they eventually get it right ... because I, like many others, have enjoyed and supported it.

Hildegard's picture

Apparently whatever they were

Submitted by Hildegard on Thu, 2013/05/16 - 4:59pm.

Apparently whatever they were doing before was good for you but not sustainable for their business, and they're trying to survive by coming up with new ideas. I wonder when R. Neal is going to change the name of this blog to Knox Gripes.

jmcnair's picture

KnoxSpews.com?

Submitted by jmcnair on Thu, 2013/05/16 - 5:53pm.
(in reply to Hildegard)

KnoxSpews.com?

michael kaplan's picture

well, at least i was a

Submitted by michael kaplan on Thu, 2013/05/16 - 6:31pm.
(in reply to Hildegard)

well, at least i was a regular customer ...

Comment viewing options

Select your preferred way to display the comments and click "Save settings" to activate your changes.

TN Progressive

TN Politics

Knox TN Today

Local TV News

News Sentinel

    State News

    Wire Reports

    Lost Medicaid Funding

    To date, the failure to expand Medicaid/TennCare has cost the State of Tennessee ? in lost federal funding. (Source)

    Search and Archives