I wrote this piece for publication in Our Town magazine.
Listen, if you don’t know Mo, you don’t know Grove Street.
These days she is part of the entrepreneurial glue that helps hold her groovy Gainesville arts and small business-centered neighborhood together.
Monica Albert is proprietor of Mo’s Garage – which isn’t a garage at all, but rather a hair salon that happens to be housed in a classy old building that used to be a garage.
And, strictly speaking, Mo is not one to mind her own business. Rather, she is Grove Street all in and all the way.
Some years ago, when the long-established downtown farmer’s market closed, Mo decided that her Grove Street neighborhood – with its eclectic mix of breweries and pubs, cafes, art studios, small businesses and community non-profits – was the perfect spot for a practically-next door-to-downtown farmer’s market.
In just over four years the Grove Street Farmer’s Market has evolved to more than 85 vendors, “and we’re making space” to accommodate up to 115, she says.
On any given Monday afternoon/evening hundreds of people come to the market – centered in and around the Cypress & Grove Brewery grounds – to buy specialty cheeses, pick through locally grown produce, sample any number of food choices (from vegan to wild game) listen to live music and, of course, enjoy a brew or two.
And just when you think the farmer’s market has become The Grove Street Institution under Mo’s careful tutelage, here comes Mo’s Groovy Grove Hamburgers.
And, no, these are not just any hamburgers: They are veggie burgers, made from ingredients sourced from local suppliers, prepared in a communal kitchen just across the street from C&G, and lovingly wrapped in a parchment-like paper that “will make you feel like you just bought a slab of meat at the butcher shop.”
That Albert – restauranteur turned caterer turned salon owner turned farmers market organizer – is launching yet another new enterprise is no surprise coming from someone who deems herself a ”serial entrepreneur.”
“All my projects are ambitious,” she says. When starting a new business “I act like this is my last day on earth. Others have 5-year plans. Whatever I’m doing has to be done in a year. So I am enthusiastically pursuing” Mo’s meatless burgers.
And given her serendipitous nature, it isn’t even surprising that Albert’s latest Grove Street enterprise was launched…well…on a lark.
“A friend of mine saw a complicated recipe for a veggie burger,” she recalled. “I told her ‘I’ll make them for you.’ I did and it wasn’t very good. So I modified the entire recipe and she loved them. Then I had some friends over and they loved them.”
From there it was only a matter of time before Mo was selling her meatless burgers at the farmer’s market. In fact, Groovy Grove’s very brand was intended to help enhance and support the folks doing business at the farmers market and in the surrounding neighborhood.
“All my business ideas kind of intertwine,” she said. “It was a good opportunity to sell something at the farmers market and support my vendors. I firmly believe in (the adage) that a rising tide lifts all boats.”
Nor is Albert one to ignore community resources available to help give small start-up businesses a leg up. First she reached out to a University of Florida College of Business program that offers entrepreneurial advice and assistance from its graduate students.
To help lay the groundwork for her new enterprise Albert connected with UF’s Launch Florida: Strategic Impact Consulting for Entrepreneurs & Changemakers program.
“It’s a wonderful resource for new businesses that don’t have time to do market research,” she said. “It’s a sprint…six weeks to learn about a number of strategies from writing a business plan, guerrilla marketing tactics, using social media to reach a young audience…the nuts and bolts” of starting a business.
Dr. Kristin Joys, Director of UF’s Social Impact & Sustainability Initiative, said “Monica was one of the most engaged entrepreneurs with which the students in our Intro to Social Entrepreneurship course had the privilege of working last Fall. They learned a lot from her, as she’s such a successful and admired serial entrepreneur in our community. The students loved collaborating with Monica to conduct market research and create a Marketing Plan & Handbook for her newest venture, Groovy Grove Burgers.”
And to begin production of her burgers on a commercial scale, Albert turned to Working Foods, right around the corner from Mo’s Garage. Working Foods is a non-profit that offers commercial-scale food preparation equipment – from a walk-in freezer to restaurant-grade ovens – to start-ups.
“We offer kitchen and food preparation facilities for people who want to start a business,” said Robert Colon, director of kitchen services for Working Foods. “We can give them an entry point for very low start-up costs. Right now we have 42 business start-ups in our kitchen program.”
Working Foods also runs education and training programs that prepare young people for careers in the culinary arts. And Albert intends to get such young learners involved in growing her business “to help them achieve a career, to mentor them and, simultaneously, give them an opportunity to be financially solvent.”
As she begins commercial production Albert is reaching out to local restaurants, stores and supermarkets. But ultimately she hopes that Groovy Grove Burgers will become a national brand.
She obtained certification from the Food And Drug Administration because, ultimately, “I intend to sell these wholesale, worldwide,” she says.
FreeGNV 