Kickstarter

Korner-Copia needs to stretch the walls and touch the sky!
Welcome to Korner-Copia Restaurant and Market, the place you will find a little bit of everything: healthy food, entertainment, and community all in a great iconic building in revitalizing Downtown Kingsport TN.
We have been open almost 2 years. In that time we have grown from a grocery/delicatessen into a full service restaurant and gourmet market. To continue to grow like our customers want us to and continue to be a successful small business, we want to expand our kitchen to serve a more inhanced menu, including gorumet pizza's and creatively change up our store front so potential customers can see us by adding a green space garden on top of our huge, cement, side walk covering awning.

Instead of creating more debt load on the business, we chose to use kickstarter to let our customers decide if they want this expansion too! We are offering large value rewards for becoming a kickstarter project backer! Almost like groupon. The only difference is that YOU can choose which you want to purchase, the larger reward you choose, the larger value you recieve! It is a win-win! However remember: If the project doesn't reach its goal by Feb 20th, your credit card will NOT be charged, but the rewards will not be offered either and we don't stretch any walls and won't be able to add that really cool awning garden. :(

For those who have never been to Korner-Copia yet, below are a few pictures and more info about Korner-Copia and our project.

But first, some info and pictures of the "rewards" we are offering to you in this kickstarter project! Choose the package to the right that you would like to pre-purchase. If you live close or are planning to visit the Tri-Cities area this year, we are offering meal packages at great value. Note: for packages like "lunch for a week", you do not have to use it in 7 consecutive days, you can spread it out over time. 

 We are offering food packages compiled of items that we sell in our market! Things like gourmet coffee beans and loose tea leaves, spices, pasta's, snack mixes, gourmet gummi bears, dip and dressing mixes and more! Korner-Copia believes in healthy eating, so a lot of these products are from the Amish and have no MSG, low and natural preservatives!  Here are some pictures:

 

 

 

 

 

 

UPDATE #! 1/24/12 CHEF JASON IS ON T.V. COOKING ONE OF THE NEW DISHES WE COULD BE SERVING WITH AN EXPANDED KITCHEN! CAN YOU SAY "ESPRESSO RUB"?! We are now adding a container of espresso rub to each "reward" over $25!!

 http://www2.daytimetricities.com/lifestyles/2012/jan/24/1/pork-chops-from-the-korner-copia-in-king-61183-vi-34095/

More info about Korner-Copia and our project:

The main dinning area .

 

Full of people having fun and enjoying great food and music..

 Korner-Copia is locally owned and run by me, Mary-Beth Morgan and my two sons, Tyler and T.J. We put everything we have into it. Here we are along with my husband Jeff.

 

Our Kickstarter project is really two in one, but before I tell you more about our projects, let me tell you a little about what and why we are.
Korner-Copia opened as a Grocery and Delicatessen in May 2010. In our deli, we offer high quality Amish deli meats and cheese that do not have MSG and a lot of chemical preservatives. We also have fresh made deli salads, cheese spreads, daily hand made soups, etc. We do not fry anything, we do not bread coat anything. We focus on foods that have natural/healthy ingredients and use local produce whenever possible.

 

 

 In our grocery store, we offer Amish bulk foods, locally made products and gourmet items that are unique and hard to find in this region.

Our back story.

Korner-Copia opened in May 2010 as a downtown grocery and deli. Within just a few short weeks of opening it was apparent our customers loved the space so much they wanted more. They didn’t just want to shop here, and buy things by the pound, they wanted to stay and spend their lunch time here. We pay attention to what our customers tell us so we had to create a deli lunch menu and add seating right away. We made our menu healthy and fun. Not only do we use only fresh ingredients like sprouts, spinach, avocados and roasted red peppers as topping options, we named all of our sandwiches after iconic Kingsport locations and businesses. This made our menu more interactive and our customers loved it! By January 2011, we had to bust through a wall and add a dining room that held 30 more seats. In April 2011 we transformed the mezzanine from grocery store shelves into a “Jazz and Blues lounge” where people could come in the evenings to listen to local musicians and eat unique appetizers. This gave very talented local musicians a place to showcase what they have to offer in an upscale comfortable space.

During the day, it became the cool place to come with the lap top or friends to hang out and chat over cappuccinos and cake.

Our customers loved the night life so much they wanted more. They wanted not only appetizers, they wanted full meals.

In July 2011 Jason Hall, a very talented executive chef who had reciently moved to N.E. TN, came to us wanting to work here because he heard such great things about what we were doing as far as offering healthier food options and locally grown ingredients.  He and I designed and implemented a dinner menu that we are able to produce out of our very limited kitchen. In September 2011 we extended our hours to include dinner and  became a full service restaurant with a market. Our customers love it! But they still want more. Our customers not only want a larger dinner menu, they want an enhanced experience that is more community based when they eat and enjoy local entertainment at Korner-Copia. But here is the problem: When we designed Korner-Copia it was as a grocery-deli with very limiting cooking needs, pretty much boiling water for pasta's and potatoes. Now we are producing plated meals for sit down dinners and catering for up to 80 at a time. Both Chef Jason and our kitchen helper are not little guys... our kitchen is less than 200 square feet! This formula is not working so well... We need to stretch some walls!


So, here are our two projects!
#1 Stretching the walls!
We want to expand our menu to offer not only more dishes but also more locally produced ingredients on our menus and in our store. To do so, we need to expand our kitchen by moving two walls back about 10 feet which will add the much needed prep and refrigeration space. We also need to purchase some new, cooking equipment (pizza oven!) and add a couple of electrical outlets, not only in the kitchen but so more people can power up those lap tops.

#2 Touching the Sky!
Unbeknownst to us before we opened, having this particular great old building empty for so many years has caused a lot of the local community to not see us now that we are here. We were are not able to change the overall look of the building, the front door is set back under the awning. The front of the building is all glass with a little marble. A lot of people still don’t know we are here. So we are thinking out of the box and decorating the sky above the doorway! We would like to add a publicly viewable green space/garden with trees and plantings on top of our huge, flat, cement, sidewalk covering awning. It would add a high level garden that would not only enhance our building enough to catch people eyes, but to enhance the entire over all look of our city block.We might even be able to plant tomato's and basil up there that we can use in our dishes! We also would like to add a bigger, better sign that is more visible on the underside of our awning.

We are looking to raise a minimum of $9,000 that we need to make all of this happen. If we receive more than our goal, we will use the extra funds to purchase other kitchen equipment that is on Chef Jasons "wish list"!

How to support our project

How Kickstarter works: This is an “all or nothing” campaign. Anyone who wishes to help us stretch the walls and touch the skies can initially “pledge” an amount of your choice. Hopefully you will base it on the reward you would like to recieve. You need to use a credit card and that is processed through Amazon.com, a well trusted, secure web site. No one’s credit cards are charged until the end of the campaign. (Feb 20th) Your pledges are processed ONLY if at least our goal of $9,000 has been met. If we don’t get enough pledges to meet that mark, we get nothing, no one’s cards get charged. If we do reach our goal, your card will be charged your pledge amount on Feb 20th.

You are not giving away money here. You are not only helping a Main St. USA small business expand, you WILL be rewarded for your generosity! We have offered “rewards” for you becoming a "backer". These are almost like a "groupon". See the list to the right of this page. These rewards are valued higher than your pledge! So by being generous today gives you savings tomorrow!

Please note: We have offered rewards in pledge amounts over $25.00 for either local to Korner-Copia backers or far away backers. You get to choose either the menu items when you dine in, or packages of items from our store. You can choose the items listedm or let us choose for you! If you pledge amounts that earn you meals for a time frame: "Lunch for a week" for example, you do not have to use that in consecutive days, you can spread it out over time.

 We want everyone who helps us Stretch the walls and Touch the sky's to enjoy Korner-Copia in one way or another. You are becoming a part of the Korner-Copia family and we appreciate you!

Here is just one example dish of what we could offer on our menu if we had a larger kitchen:

Imagine how beautiful this picture will be with trees, flowering plants, grasses etc. all in beautiful planters on top of the awning! (above the words Korner-Copia and Delicatessen in this picture)

Thank you for taking the time to read our story. Please consider pledging to our needs. We appreciate you!