Details:
“We opened on a Saturday, and the first day was a blur,” she says. “We had thought of everything — we had enough lettuce, bowls, a store and cash registers, but when I had to fold the wrap for my first customer, I realized I hadn’t thought to learn how to do that.”
By Beth Miller, Engineering Momentum
Walk into the Green Bean restaurant in St. Louis’ Central West End neighborhood and you’ll see lots of color — from the green leaves painted on the walls to the chopped red peppers, orange carrots, purple onions and other fresh vegetables and meats stored neatly in gleaming stainless-steel containers.
Once a customer places an order for a salad or wrap, the process from preparation to presentation is an efficient system seemingly designed by an engineer with a penchant for the environment, since all materials used for the restaurant are sustainable, and utensils, cups and containers are compostable.
It seems that it was designed by an engineer because it was.
Sarah Haselkorn, a senior Engineering student, opened Green Bean in November 2011 with her friend, Nick Guzman, both Washington, D.C., natives, as a solution to a problem: finding healthy food off campus that was quick and tasted good.
They determined that there was a need in the St. Louis area for sustainable salad shops similar to those prevalent in the Washington, D.C., area. What they developed is a fresh-food-lover’s paradise, with the option to choose from a chef-designed menu, create a large, custom salad or have the salad stuffed into a large wrap. As much as possible, ingredients are locally sourced.
Already Haselkorn is getting national attention for Green Bean. In September, she won the Entrepreneurs’ Organization’s Global Student Entrepreneur Awards regional competition and competed in the finals in November for a $10,000 cash prize.
Haselkorn planted the seed for Green Bean while in her second year at Washington University, where she is majoring in systems science & engineering with a minor in entrepreneurship through the Olin Business School. Although taking classes, working two part-time jobs and shy of 20 years old, she took on the challenge of starting the restaurant.
During the first semester, she and Guzman, a 2011 graduate of Amherst College, wrote a business plan. Between semesters, they took their business plan, along with some market research they did themselves, to family and friends, as well as a Washington, D.C.-based chef and restaurateur who is a Guzman family friend.
“We told him he didn’t have to put anything into it besides his time, and he said yes,” Haselkorn says. “He did first try to talk us out of it, as any chef or restaurant owner would.”
Not to be deterred, Haselkorn and Guzman now had a business plan, seed funding and a menu — now they needed space. Although Haselkorn spent the spring semester of her second year in Boston working for a startup company, she managed to oversee hiring a designer for the 900-squarefoot space they had chosen at 232 N. Euclid Ave. Since money was tight, Haselkorn and Guzman oversaw the remodeling work themselves.
“We realized we were designing a small space, so we hired a plumber, electrician, HVAC technician and a carpenter,” she says. “We reused a lot of materials from the business that was in the space before, including 100 percent of the wood, so we had a one-for-one exchange of materials.”
Less than a year after they began the plan, Green Bean opened its doors in a modern yet simply decorated space on a November day.
“We opened on a Saturday, and the first day was a blur,” she says. “We had thought of everything — we had enough lettuce, bowls, a store and cash registers, but when I had to fold the wrap for my first customer, I realized I hadn’t thought to learn how to do that.”
Haselkorn says Washington University has nurtured her entrepreneurial spirit through her classes as well as her relationships with faculty.
“Washington University provides different opportunities to explore different subjects if you take that opportunity,” she says. “My favorite classes here have been interdisciplinary – social entrepreneurship and service learning. They helped me figure out what I was interested in and to think to the maximum, to explore my passions and to go for whatever I want to go for.
“I can pick up every skill here that I need,” she says.
“Washington University has everything you need to craft yourself into whatever you need to be able to reach your goals.”
Her Engineering classes also have played a big role in the process.
“My engineering classes helped me the most with problem solving,” she says. “I definitely used, and continue to use, those critical-thinking skills when we hit roadblocks.”
Haselkorn also credits the relationships she’s developed with faculty, students and in particular, her mentor, Gay Lorberbaum, senior lecturer in the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts.
“There are amazing resources here if you take advantage of them, and you should, because you’re only here for four years,” she says. “It’s important to find the right people to reach out to who can help you.”
Clifford Holekamp, senior lecturer in entrepreneurship and director of the Entrepreneurship Platform at the Olin Business School, has had Haselkorn as a student in several courses.
“I am absolutely amazed by how Sarah has managed to juggle being a full-time student while also being the full-time owner of a demanding retail business,” Holekamp says. “Maybe her secret is that she seems to be having a lot of fun with the success she enjoys with both.”
This fall, Haselkorn is in The Hatchery, the university’s capstone entrepreneurship course taught by Holekamp, with a partner from a previous business class. Together they are developing an idea that they hope will get funding so they can launch after they graduate next spring.
As for Green Bean, Haselkorn and Guzman are evaluating options for the restaurant’s growth in the area.
Abstract:
“Washington University has everything you need to craft yourself into whatever you need to be able to reach your goals," says Systems Science & Engineering student and restaurateur Sarah Haselkorn.
ImageUrl: http://admin.seas.wustl.edu/ContentImages/newsphotos/GreenBean_Sarah_news_article_72.jpg
DateAdded: 12/6/2012