Hat City Kitchen is a great restaurant in New Jersey that has joined the other companies around the world in support of social entrepreneurship. As a non-profit restaurant, the Hat City Kitchen uses its revenue to aid the arts of the Valley neighborhood of Orange. Its business model makes it unique as the restaurant hopes to transform the community into an arts district. All the money that the Hat City Kitchen makes will go to funding art shows, music festivals and making the Valley beautiful again. Nevertheless, a number of social entrepreneurship pundits have warned that the restaurant needs to be cautious of its business model, particularly since its using the relatively risky restaurant model. Despite this, the vision of social entrepreneurship for the Kitchen has inspired its workers and the Orange community.
I applaud any social enterprise that inspires its workers and helps revitalize a neighborhood. But I would have to join with the “pundits” in saying that a good business plan, sufficiently capitalized is essential for success of any enterprise, no matter how well-intentioned. I hope they have such a plan and wish them well.