In 2013, The Factory Café opens with farm tables suited to family-style dining and a full chef’s kitchen with Yewande Komolafe at the helm. Over the next six years, the team at The Factory Café feeds staff, workshop guests, community members, and visitors from near and far—serving up local and sustainably sourced ingredients for weekday lunch, Saturday brunch, catering, meals to-go, and a Supper Club series. In addition to regular service, this space becomes home to Alabama Chanin’s Friends of the Café Dinner Series benefiting the Southern Foodways Alliance and a range of other organizations.
Slide 1: Lunch tickets in the kitchen window of The Factory Café, 2014, photograph by Rinne Allen
Slide 2: Lunch service at The Factory Café, 2015, photograph by Rinne Allen
Slide 3: View of The Factory Café bar and service area, 2013; BLT—an essential summer sandwich in any southern kitchen—with house-made bread, farm-raised bacon, and locally-grown lettuce and heirloom tomatoes, 2018, photographs by Abraham Rowe
Slide 4: Roasted locally-grown zucchini, 2014, photograph by Rinne Allen; Menu board, 2018, photograph by Abraham Rowe
Slide 5: Lunch menu, 2014, photograph by Rinne Allen; The Factory Café biscuits, sausage gravy, and coffee served on Heath Ceramics dinnerware with Organic Cotton Jersey Napkins from Alabama Chanin’s Life + Living collection, 2018, photograph by Abraham Rowe (read more about our collaboration with Heath Ceramics here)
Slide 6: Gram Perkins’ Egg Salad Sandwich, a recipe from Natalie’s grandmother, on The Factory Café menu board, 2016, photograph by Rinne Allen
Slide 7: The Factory Café prepared for a Friends of the Café dinner, photograph by Abraham Rowe (read an entry on our Friends of the Café Dinner series here)
Slide 8: Chocolate Pots de Crème served in a Weck Jar with Heath Ceramics dinnerware and Organic Cotton Jersey Napkins from Alabama Chanin’s Life + Living collection, 2014, photograph by Rinne Allen
Slide 9: Scott Peacock in April, 2017, photograph by Abraham Rowe