DURHAM, N.C. -- A Durham restaurant owner is hoping to start a pop-up kitchen for those restaurants wanting to stay in business by providing delivery or take out. It's idea that Tom Ferguson is bringing to life in Downtown Durham.
Tom Ferguson is hoping to transform this space, into a pop-up kitchen for Durham restaurants to provide take-out and delivery.
“I wanted to give a platform for people who didn’t have a way of doing delivery or pickup from their spots, to make a ghost/cloud kitchen where they could work out of,” explained Ferguson. “Collectively we could market it together and make it easy for them to come in, no upfront money, just come in and start putting out your product.”
It's called Steadfast Durham located on Foster Street. “You come in here and set up, you bring your food, you bring your disposables, your cook and your delivery driver,” said Ferguson. “We set up the website, where people can go and order online, or order for delivery. That order would go directly to a printer in your section of this kitchen.”
Fifteen percent of each restaurants sales goes towards overhead and any extra of that 15 percent will go towards the Triangle Restaurant Employee Relief Fund.
This coronavirus crisis hits close to home for Ferguson. He's not only the CEO of Rise Southern Biscuits & Righteous Chicken, he experienced the crash of 2008, when his catering company took a huge hit. “I went through this crisis back in 2009 and I found out then that I couldn’t really wait for the government to come help or really rely that they’re going to get us out of the hole that we’re digging right now.”
Which is why he's encouraging everyone to keep fighting. “Do whatever you can to get food out right now,” said Ferguson. “Not only for the financial ramification, but for the mental part of it as well. If we just sit there and waiting, it just causes depression and anxiety and I have a lot of experience with that myself. I just want to uplift and let’s go, that’s why I called it Steadfast Durham.”
Ferguson is hoping to get four or five restaurants to jump on board.
He says this is also a way to give back to a community that has supported him. “It’s a great community that’s really supported restaurants that started in this community. I started Rise here and now we’re in 6 states. They really supported me during that transition. Durham gave me so much. I’m just trying to help everybody come together in a way to give back, let’s fight through this.”
If you're interested, you can contact Tom Ferguson at 919-475-2234 or tom@risefranchising.com
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