Kearns Food Hall adds even more international culinary options with the addition of Hemingway's Cuban Kitchen. Well-known as a hub for diverse cuisines, the food hall is now expanding into the Caribbean.
The Patel brothers are originally from India but settled in Florida and realized that Cuban food could be a good business, but they were determined to make the food as authentic as possible, so they brought in a chef named Marco who specializes in Cuban cuisine.
“He changed the menu,” Raj Patel says, “he changed everything, the way the food was presented, and now it's our mission to have chefs nurture authentic Cuban cuisine.”
Chef Marco has been with Hemingway's for over 10 years and travels to new locations to help train staff on the menu. Hemingway's currently has locations in Tampa, Atlanta and the Kearns Food Hall, which opened in June.
After signing the lease on Hemingway's in Kearns, the Patels decided to also open Oo Lala Indian Kitchen to offer customers more flavor options. The goal is to have the two restaurants open at the same time while expanding into separate locations.
While the Patels hope to continue expanding, they are focused on growing the team and establishing a presence in Knoxville as football season approaches.
“We just opened a few weeks ago, so right now I'm just focusing on building a good team,” Patel says. “Right now we're bringing in people from different states. My chef at Ooh Lala Indian is from Arizona, and for Hemingway, we've brought in a chef from Tampa. We can train local people, but we need some expertise to maintain the authenticity, so we're bringing in people from far away.”
Though it's still early days for Kearns, the Patels have had a vision for it from the early stages of the renovation: The food hall has focused on creating a space that vendors and customers want to be in.
“The management has been really supportive and has been doing a lot of marketing by bringing in creative ideas to bring people here,” Patel said. “They've been doing a lot to bring customers here. They've been organizing a lot of platform performances like karaoke songs, they've been hosting movie nights to generate interest and bring in really good traffic here.”
On July 7, the food hall launched a passport campaign to promote the different flavors on offer, where customers can win prizes and vendors can promote their own dishes.
With Hemingway's Cuban Kitchen and Ooo Lala Indian Kitchen expanding into Kearns Food Hall, the Patels are focused on building a loyal customer base in Knoxville, and with strong support from the food hall's management, they're optimistic about the road ahead.
