Entrepreneurship: It Gets Hot in the Kitchen!

Fishers Test Kitchen restaurant accelerator chef

Entrepreneurship: It Gets Hot in the Kitchen!

Several years ago an idea was born: we could stimulate the culinary culture in Fishers by leveraging our community’s strengths in innovation and entrepreneurship. A thriving local food scene would literally (quite literally) feed our innovation economy. After all, the people who make up the most innovative companies typically demand more of their dining experiences, including a preference for local restaurants, farm-to-table freshness, and organic / locally grown ingredients.  

Early conversations around the Fishers Test Kitchen involved bringing the same support and culture to the restaurant scene in Fishers as Launch Fishers and the Indiana IoT Lab, including dreaming big dreams, risking failure, and learning and growing along the way.  

Entrepreneurship isn’t for the faint of heart, and restaurant entrepreneurship is no exception. In the run up to our grand opening, our chefs have been hard at work creating their menus, going through bootcamp, and fine-tuning operations. During this process, one of the chefs decided this wasn’t the time nor the place. We respect that. Things change. Situations change. And we all adapt.  

It happens frequently in the tech world — companies shut down before ever taking flight or generating that first dollar of revenue. Neal Brown, two-time James Beard Award nominee for Best Chef in the Midwest Region, said to me, “People don’t go out for a Series B in restaurants!” meaning you have one shot to make it work. If it isn’t right, you are better off not taking that shot than doing something you know isn’t right for you.   

The entrepreneurial cycles in the world of innovation happen fast, and it’s not uncommon for a venture to cease before ever generating a dollar of revenue. As a result, Fishers Test Kitchen recently re-launched a search for a third restaurant concept to round out the menu available at Sun King’s Innovation Brewery in Fishers. 

We’re excited to open our doors with our partners at Sun King Brewing in early February featuring Korave Korean BBQ and Lil Dumplings along with The Signature Table, a unique culinary performance space available for private parties, group events, charity fundraisers, and culinary classes. You can expect to see more about our third concept very soon. All I can say at this point is, “fried chicken!”

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Check out this video for a sneak peak of what you can expect: