Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in food and beverage but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Robb Eng, co-founder of TuckShop Kitchen, located in Toronto, ON, Canada.
What's your business, and who are your customers?
TuckShop Kitchen is a popular lunch takeout restaurant in Toronto, offering house made burgers, sandwiches and bacon. Our meats are sourced from Canadian farms and are prepared in our kitchen.
Over the past 5 years, TuckShop Kitchen has become a local staple for the Junction Triangle neighborhood and local businesses, and profiled in Toronto Life, Torontoist and Daily Hive. TuckShop Kitchen was awarded “Best Sandwich” by NOW Toronto Reader’s Choice 2021; “Best Burger in Junction Triangle” and “Best Sandwich in Junction Triangle” by BlogTO in 2020.
Tell us about yourself
Owner Jake Taylor is former executive chef who moved from the world of fine dining towards creating classic comfort foods accessible to anyone. We believe that a high quality sandwich doesn’t need to break the bank. We produce all our meats and sauces in our small 400 square foot space, and pass on the savings to our customers.
But with this success, the business may not have ever happened... or even opened our doors in the first place.
In 2015, the Junction Triangle community supported a city council motion to allow TuckShop to open. Signatures from the community and floods of online social media support allowed us to gain approval to operate a previously unused back space behind a gardening store. A few years later, the community came out again to overturn a city sanctioned shutdown of our picnic table area. We are a small team and big dreams, and it’s the community support that empowers us to keep going.
During the pandemic TuckShop has pivoted into a permanent takeout window, providing safe distance for our customers and staff. The previous indoor space is now being used to produce our popular house smoked and thick cut Tuck Bacon for retail and wholesale across the GTA.
Where can people find you and your business?
Website: https://tuckshopkitchen.ca/
Instagram: @tuckshopkitchen
Facebook: @TuckShopKitchen
Yelp: https://www.yelp.ca/biz/tuckshop-kitchen-toronto
If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solopreneur that you'd like to share, then email community@subkit.com; we'd love to feature your journey on these pages.
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