Tell us a bit about yourself and your business.
My name is Patrick Van Voorhis, and my wife Casey and I run Grist. We met in culinary school at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York, and we later took a leap of faith to open a business! The vision behind Grist is to provide a product for people who need a little bit of help cooking at home. We are pasta fanatics and came up with the concept for an easy outlet for really good food and we work with local farms to incorporate local ingredients. The term Grist has a few meanings. The philosophical meaning is the heart or the foundation of the family. Hopefully we create an environment for people to create this experience at home. Grist offers fine-dining caliber bread, pasta, and specialty provisions, along with a menu of salads, sandwiches, desserts and more.
What made you decide to open your own small business and how long have you been in operation?
We have been cooking together a very long time. Previously, we were executive chefs running two different restaurants. We were making pasta at the house and wished we could do that all day. Three months later we moved to Dayton from California. We opened three years ago and have been fortunate to make local contacts and everyone has been fantastic. When we outgrew our original space, we moved into our current location a few months ago.
What do you enjoy about working in downtown Dayton?
One of the things I love most is the camaraderie that comes with working in this area. Coming from bigger cities, that support system you get from industry is different in larger cities. Every owner here has been very helpful and supportive in uplifting Dayton as a whole, it’s a great mindset to have. We’ve loved seeing the changes over the past few years and are happy to be a part of of it.
Tell us something about your business that may surprise people to learn.
People might be surprised to learn we are planning to do some cooking classes in the future! We also recently welcomed our first child!
How is your business coping with the pandemic and how can people support you now?
We have been very fortunate. We did have to do a slight change in the previous location to focusing on carry out, and we did have plans to do a full scale restaurant but had to pivot due to the pandemic. The easiest way to support us is to come down and visit our location. The outdoor patio will be open soon!
Grist
46 W. Fifth St.
www.eatgrist.com
510-778-5807
facebook.com/grist.provisions
instagram.com/Gristprovisions
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