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Originally Posted by Phxguy
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How buying The Dressing Room fits into True North Studio's vision for Roosevelt Row
As of Monday, two of Roosevelt Row's most recognizable dining and drinking destinations have new owners.
Two-year-old coffee shop Be Coffee and The Dressing Room, a popular micro-restaurant, now belong to a growing list of downtown Phoenix businesses owned by True North Studio. The Phoenix-based development company has made major investments in downtown Phoenix in recent years including purchasing large swaths of property on Roosevelt Row.
Both the coffee shop and restaurant are located at monOrchid, a longstanding art gallery with office and event space that has been a pillar of the Roosevelt Row district in the Evans Churchill neighborhood for decades. The white building, a landmark of the area, is located on Roosevelt Street between Second and Third streets.
Partners Troy Watkins and Kyu Utsunomiya, who owned Be Coffee and The Dressing Room until this week, also have become familiar and prominent faces in the downtown community since opening Be Coffee in 2015. Not only do the pair and their company, Conceptually Social, operate restaurants in the downtown area, they also run a catering company based in the nearby Warehouse District.
Utsunomiya told The Republic on Tuesday afternoon that he decided to sell the two restaurants at monOrchid in order to focus on other parts of the business.
"This is our baby. We both got married while we were making this these things," Utsunomiya said of Be Coffee and The Dressing Room.
"All that said, our company was pivoting to focusing on catering. It had pivoted so far from there that it was hard to be in both places at once."
What this means for the restaurants
For fans of Be Coffee and The Dressing Room, Utsunomiya says to expect "business as usual."
He and Watkins will assist True North Studio during a 30-day transition period. The staff at both businesses also are able to keep their jobs despite the ownership change. True North Studio will now handle day-to-day operations at both businesses.
Utsunomiya says the idea to sell the two businesses came about in large part because of the relationship that Conceptually Social and True North Studio developed over the last couple years. Both True North Studio and Conceptually Social have office space inside the monOrchid.
When Utsunomiya began expressing interest in shifting focus to catering, conversations started about True North Studio taking over operations.
"It's when we first saw that there was a person and a team that could take this on and make it be what we want it to be," Utsunomiya says. "This is a legacy that we leave behind here."
What's next for Conceptually Social
Utsunomiya and Conceptually Social won't be going far, however. The company will continue to own and operate The Larry, a restaurant and coffee shop located in the Warehouse District south of downtown Phoenix.
That fast-growing area will be a new place of focus for Conceptually Social. As more businesses move into the Warehouse District, Utsunomiya hopes to build on Conceptually Social's prior success by meeting these companies' food and beverage needs.
"We want to see ourselves as a restaurant solutions company," Utsunomiya says. "And the great thing is we don't have to look farther than downtown."
In part that means continuing to grow as one of the only catering companies with a physical presence in or around downtown Phoenix.
But Utsunomiya also says the company aims to open new restaurants in the same model as The Larry.
The breakfast, lunch and happy hour restaurant is located in the same renovated warehouse as Galvanize, a coworking space for entrepreneurs and startup business. With hundreds of potential customers on-site each day, the restaurant benefits in part from a built-in customer base.
On-site event space also makes The Larry and Conceptually Social a natural choice for catering. And even when small companies inevitably outgrow the shared workspace at Galvanize, Conceptually Social is primed to become the catering company of choice for these growing tech startups.
"We found a niche," Utsunomiya says.
Is this a new model for True North Studio?
As for True North, the move to purchase the two food and beverage outlets is not entirely unexpected. But it is a shift away from the Phoenix-based development company's usual model.
In addition to purchasing monOrchid, True North Studio also has purchased or made financial investments in a number of properties and businesses in and around downtown Phoenix and Roosevelt Row.
The list includes hotel projects Cambria and the Godfrey Hotel, experiential projects such as Punch Bowl Social and the highly-anticipated Meow Wolf Hotel, as well as a number of restaurants and bars.
Notably, True North Studio recruited Grace Unger, owner of Tuck Shop, to join the company and operate a number of restaurants and bars on True North Studio-owned property. The development company also purchased Unger's Tuck Shop, a dining staple of the Coronado neighborhood northeast of downtown, though Unger continues to run day-to-day operations of that business.
Jonathon Vento, principal developer and True North Studio founder, says the acquisition of Be Coffee and The Dressing Room made sense for both the buyer and seller's long term goals.
"To me it's a classic win-win," Vento says. "I find them to be the best catering company in the state. They push boundaries in such a unique way."
To that end, Utsunomiya says Conceptually Social will continue to work closely with True North Studio by catering events at the developer's hotels and office complexes.
How this fits into the changes on RoRo
Vento, however, says True North Studio does not see acquiring and operating food and beverage businesses as a long-term or larger strategy. In this case, the developer says, the deal made sense since both companies had and will continue to work closely together.
"It was not a model for us," Vento says.
Utsunomiya says he's not worried about handing over the business to another company, even one with little experience in food and beverage operations.
"I'm not concerned about it," Utsunomiya says. "We felt comfortable with their commitment to what we started."
True North Studio also has invested in increasing its ability and expertise in food and beverage operations. The company has hired Carol Daniel, whose previous experience includes time at Levy Restaurants and Kimpton Hotels and Restaurants, to join the team.
Vento says the acquisition will only further the purpose monOrchid has always served as a third place for those living, working and dining in the Roosevelt Row neighborhood.
"MonOrchid is like a lab," he says. "It's really meant to create and foster change."
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