Hatch Off

I don't have an official transcript or good video of all the contestants at the Hatch Off, but a friend did get a somewhat pieced together video of mediocre quality and I did my best to transcribe my answers.  I can't promise complete accuracy and a few parts were cut out, but, well, you can figure it out.

The judges were Paul Saginaw from the Zingerman's family of companies, Dave Blaszkiewicz of Invest Detroit and the Downtown Detroit Partnership, and Torya Blanchard of Good Girls Go To Paris fame.  Each contestant started with a brief description of their project.

Joe:  My store Hugh, some of you have seen it before, it was the Detroit area’s first pop-up store (other than maybe Halloween USA), and it sells furniture, lighting, barware, smoking accessories, personal effects and other great home décor, all geared toward classic bachelor pad style.

Paul:  Tell me why, if you receive this award [audio cut out, something like: Hugh will contribute to the community it is in].

Joe:  One of the things that Detroit has a real shortage of right now - one of the things that Detroit really needs - is well-thought-out, well-executed, unique independent retail. Hugh is a store with a personality, it helps fill in spaces that make the ground level experience exciting for people live in the neighborhood, for people who work in the neighborhood, who want to come down and spend time in Detroit. What is really critically important is that not everything is a bar or a restaurant.

Dave:  OK I’ll follow up with … Hugh is a specialty retailer, and specialty retailers often are not destination retail establishments in and of themselves. Do you view Hugh as a destination retail establishment and if not, what other type of symbiotic type businesses would you like to be located with?

Joe:  Hugh in and of itself is a destination, it has been in the past, because it is unique. There are no other stores similar to Hugh - actually in the country. I’ve done some checking. And the one or two web stores that do exist that are like Hugh are actually pretty lame. So Hugh is a great store that can exist by itself.

What would be great to have around Hugh are just some of the ancillary businesses of the neighborhood. Hugh doesn’t need to have a store that plays off of the men vibe next to it. For example we will, if we open up, be teaming up with Pot & Box, who was a contestant in the Hatch semi-finals, to offer, on all those floral obligation holidays, to give people a chance to come in and buy flowers. We want to be a place that you can take care of your business if you are a guy, to make sure you are doing it right.

Dave: A quick follow up question, where did you get that sweet coat?

Joe: This was a gift that my grandfather gave to my dad, I received it with its original Jacobson’s tags on it fifteen years ago.

Christian Dior, by the way.

Torya: Shut up.  As we all know, Detroit is a city that’s 85% people of color. What are you going to do to attract, not just obviously the hotties that are out here, but the majority of people that reside in the city of Detroit?

That’s a great question. One of the things about Hugh in the past that was so fantastic is that the style that Hugh had really crossed racial boundaries. It was not a hipster store, although hipsters liked it. It was not a downtown workers store but downtown workers liked it. It was not a suburbanite store but suburbanites liked it.

We had a lot of African-American customers. We were right next to Centaur which as you know has a lot of African-American clients, and actually we hosted a couple parties including Oneita Jackson and her O Street Block Party at Hugh.

So that's it, it was quick.  You can see some of the photos from Oneita's Block Party here, and below is a pic of me in that sweet smoking jacket winding down after the Hatch Off at Cafe D'Mongo's.  It was a great night!