Meet Joseph Kraft | Artist + Restauranteur

We had the good fortune of connecting with Joseph Kraft and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Joseph, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
My wife was very hesitant to me opening a brick-and-mortar business in the city. She didn’t want to be rooted in city life long-term and ultimately had a heart set to plant our lives in the mountains. So, in regards to opening our restaurant, my thought process was along the lines of 1. If the business is successful, it could sell it in a few years to help finance the move to the mountains. 2. Keep the location and see if we are capable of running it remotely without us having to be involved in the day-to-day operations. 3. The assets we would have accumulated in the process of having our own business could always be packed up and used in whichever mountain town we moved to whilst subleasing the property we built up to another restauranteur.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I choose the question about art rather than the one about running a business. Although I currently co-own a breakfast + brunch waffle restaurant with my wife, I like to view the restaurant as one long ongoing art show with food, and atmosphere. The trick is to consistently curate and dish out good food to attendees daily so that they keep coming back. The waffle plates are a work of art – but also the experience of finding the neighborhood eatery can be taken as an artistic experience. Lastly, the restaurant itself is to be seen as a street art gallery that curates an experience where its partakers are exposed to art that I’ve had the pleasure of curating and collecting.

“Being good in business is the most fascinating kind of art.” Andy Warhol Every day the restaurant has to produce its food with integrity that’s artistic enough for Instagram. It’s a business that makes money for its team of workers. And the way our team interacts with the waffle patrons takes the art of communicating and serving.

One thing that establishes our restaurant apart from others is that our baby was a mistake. We had rented a property behind a local laundromat to store our farmers market equipment and use it like a commercial kitchen to bake our goods for local coffee shops. After a premature review in a fancy food blog, it forced our hand to open up sooner than we had anticipated. Pushing into the summer, people would just come onto the property expecting a full-fledged restaurant only to find a garage with the aroma of sweet baked bread. After a few weeks of turning away confused customers, we just decided to seat a handful of them and feed them what the waffles they came for – Street waffles. Weeks turned to months which turned to a secret waffle speakeasy vibe that had yet to be permitted by the city. We had plenty of permits – just not the established restaurant kind. We were more of a rogue coffee cart that served hundreds of labor intense, yeast-risen, slow-rise, pearl sugar-packed, almost sour, dough-based waffles. It was illegal. Eventually, we got our permits and kitchen corrected and did so without any business loans, savings, investors, or seed capital. That process took over a year. We just worked the shop over the weekend, then scoured craigslist for the correct NSF-certified sink or prep fridge needed. All this while the cities biggest hipster restaurant group dropped over a quarter of a million dollars to do their fancy ramen noodle spot across the street.

Was it easy? If not, how did you overcome the challenges?

I tend to downplay things and say that it is easy. But the reality is – it was very hard. It took years of long hours of setting up at farmers markets every week – while still running my bespoke graphic design and screen printing studio. My wife also worked as a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and was helping set up a local clinic for families where traditional counseling was too costly. Many times we would start work early and end late from the farmers’ markets lifestyle together, sneak dishes home instead of the commercial kitchen. Day in and day out in order to build up some brand integrity and ethos.

I think what I’d want people to know is that through the years of doing business the one thing I’ve found most prizable is the relationships that you can foster with your team. Through a broken partnership with a young streetwear non-profit in the early 2000s, I managed to maintain my relationships with my co-owners despite me personally giving up on the brand to pursue my first retail store. Now all these years later after we reconnected, I have a restaurant through those rekindled relationships. Ironically our second partnership has recently fizzled as we parted way so my partner can focus on building a lemonade empire and I wanted to prioritize my small mom + pop waffle shop. All in all, despite what could have been burned down bridges ended up just being temporarily retired, then repaired and reused years later.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Upon picking them up at the airport – and assuming they’re hungry, we’d go to Liberty Public Market in Pt. Loma. From there, we’d either get Phillip Esteban’s White Rice concept or some fresh hand-made paste from my old farmers market friend Alejandro at Pasta Design. Then we’d get coffee and an atypical waffle at Moniker Coffee. On our way to North Park – where they would most likely Airbnb I’d drop by ACD gallery and see if they needed any clothes or reading materials related to rare high-end streetwear culture. As for dinner plans, we’d either go to Anime or Lumi Sushi to see what Tara or Marcus has respectively. The new Mingei Museum Libary in Balboa Park is also a must-see. If that’s too busy, then anything Swish Projects will carry its weight in gold when it comes to pushing youth culture.

Lastly, if there’s time for a quick dip in the ocean, then we’d head to Mitch’s in La Jolla to get whatever we needed then paddle out at Windansea or Marine street as the sunsets. The next morning; it would be Atypical Waffle – but if they are sold out then, pancakes at Snooze or maple bacon donuts at The Great Maple as a good plan B. If a quick lunch is needed, then Shake Shack (burgers) or the Crack Shack (chicken sando’s) in Little Italy before dropping them off at the airport.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
There are a few shoutouts off the top of my head. Todd Casselberry, He and I had a clothing partnership back in the day called Nikao Youth Project along with his brother-in-law Hank Renteria. It was a cause-oriented fashion brand that was ahead of its time a good decade. We sold all over Japan as well as local staples such as Barney’s + Fred Segal’s. They took me in when I was 21 and exposed me to a handful of industry opportunities that accelerated my confidence and growth as a young business owner. Eventually, the clothing brand split up and we all went different life and design directions. Five years later, Todd and I reconnected and started Wow wow Lemonade together a year after he invited me to be a part of another entrepreneurship venture he had selling waffles at farmers markets.

Another Shoutout would go to a faith-based mentor named George Clerie. After breaking up the clothing brand, I decided to direct my efforts toward the idea of what Christian faith looks like lived out – outside of the walls “of the church.” I spent half a decade working alongside George and his team developing a local missionary discipleship school in San Diego. I had the pleasure of taking part in dozens of missions trips all over the globe – financed through faith. Many students gave up jobs and healthy careers to attend this school, and a good handful came in with nothing. It was amazing to see so many of the mission trips financed with an invisible currency called faith.

Website: atypicalwaffle.com

Instagram: @josephhkraft

Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/joe-kraft-6b7b4940

Twitter: @atypicalwaffle

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/atypicalwaffle/

Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/atypical-waffle-san-diego