2017 welcomed exciting changes, friends and collaborators, and community involvement to The Factory Café. In July we welcomed new head chef, and Florence native, Ray Nichols. Our menu saw exciting changes with the addition of Antipasti Mondays, The Factory Burger, house made pastrami, and seasonal grit bowls on the brunch menu.

We continued the tradition of hosting visiting chefs during our Friends of the Café Dinner Series.  This year we were privileged to welcome Scott Peacock, Ashley Christensen (who collaborated with us on a capsule collection for Alabama Chanin), and Asha Gomez.

The Factory Store hosted pop-up shops for Idyllwilde and Hawks and Doves, a book-signing party for Lucy Buffet’s latest cookbook, Gumbo Love, and special in-store shopping events like the Sip + Shop and The Holiday Shop.

We took part in the 7 Points Art Crawl where chef Ray served the customer-favorite Factory Burger, the weekly College Street Farmers Market at Singin’ River Live, and recently the Jingle Bell Mingle, which benefited the Junior League of the Shoals.

The Factory Café also fostered making this year with a variety of workshops held by ourselves and in conjunction with the University of North Alabama. It was a pleasure partnering and working with the many incredible organizations and businesses in our community.

Find updates from The Factory each Monday and Wednesday on the Journal.

P.S.: Check back tomorrow for a look at @theschoolofmaking on Instagram.